BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission yesterday said it wants a ban on deep sea drilling in its waters — despite US readiness to lift a moratorium there and intense opposition in Scotland, home to the bulk of EU oil.

An EU source said the 27-strong board of the bloc’s executive agreed a proposal to be presented by German energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger on Wednesday, calling for a ban on safety grounds following the Gulf of Mexico disaster in the United States.

Commission vice-president, English baroness Catherine Ashton, expressed reservations during the meeting but did not oppose the plan, the source spelled out to AFP.

The White House said yesterday that President Barack Obama’s administration will likely lift its moratorium “very soon.”

Obama ordered a six-month freeze on deepwater offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after a massive BP oil leak from an undersea well after a rig explosion in late April.

Eleven workers died and some 205 million gallons of oil flowed into the Gulf after the blast, which wreaked havoc on crucial fishing and tourism industries.

The US freeze was annulled by a court in July and promptly reinstated by the government but expires on November 30.

Opponents of the moratorium have charged that it has been devastating for the Gulf Coast economy which still has not recovered from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Oettinger came out in favour of such a ban in the summer, but the European parliament last week rejected the merits of a ban.

Far and away the EU’s biggest oil reserves are found in the North Sea off Scotland, whose governing Scottish National Party has claimed a ban would prove a “disaster” for its economy.