The owner of the drilling rig involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico criticized the U.S. government's six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the area Tuesday. 
 
 Workers climb over a boom after cleaning oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill on a beach, Monday, June 21, 2010, in Grand Isle, La. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Associated Press) 
 
 Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill invades the beach, Monday, June 21, 2010, in Port Fourchon, La. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Associated Press) 
 
 Workers walk along a line of barges anchored in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end, are expected... (Associated Press) 
 
 Workers line up a piling to keep a line of barges in place in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end,... (Associated Press) 
 
 People walk past hay bales along the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., Monday, June 21, 2010. The bales line the beach to defend against oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) (Associated Press) 
 
 On the sidelines of an oil conference in London, Transocean Ltd. president Steven Newman said there were things President Barack Obama's administration "could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit." 
 
 Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was run by British oil company BP PLC. An April 20 explosion on the rig killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. 
 
 The criticism came a day after a federal judge in New Orleans began to mull lifting the moratorium, which the Obama administration imposed after the disaster began, and the administrator of a $20 billion fund to compensate oil spill victims pledged to speed payment of claims. 
 
 Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday whether to overturn the ban. 
 
 During Monday's two-hour hearing, plaintiffs' attorney Carl Rosenblum said the six-month suspension of drilling work could prove more economically devastating than the spill itself. 
 
 "This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this," Rosenblum said. 
 
 Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated that industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer. 
 
 "The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety," said Justice Department attorney Guillermo Montero. 
 
 Meanwhile, Kenneth Feinberg, who has been tapped by the White House to run the fund set up to help people harmed by the spill, said many people are in desperate financial straits and need immediate relief. 
 
 "We want to get these claims out quicker," he said. "We want to get these claims out with more transparency." 
 
 Feinberg, who ran the claim fund set up for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said BP has paid out over $100 million so far. Various estimates place total claims so far in excess of $600 million. 
 
 BP said it has spent $2 billion fighting the spill for the last two months and compensating victims, with no end in sight. It's likely to be at least August before crews finish two relief wells that are the best chance of stopping the flow of oil. 
 
 The British oil giant released its latest tally of response costs, including $105 million paid out so far to 32,000 claimants. That figure does not include the $20 billion fund BP PLC last week agreed to set up for residents and businesses hurt by the spill. 
 
 Also Monday, the government sent BP a $51.4 million bill for the response effort. BP has already paid two other bills totaling $70.9 million. 
 
 Shares of BP, which have lost about half their value since the April 20 oil rig disaster that killed 11 workers, fell nearly 3 percent Monday in New York trading to $30.86. 
 
 BP chief executive Tony Hayward canceled a scheduled Tuesday appearance at the London oil conference, citing his commitment to the Gulf relief effort. The last-minute pullout followed stinging criticism of Hayward's attendance at a yacht race on the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England on Saturday. 
 
 Obama's administration has also been struggling to show it is responding forcefully to the spill, which has gushed anywhere from 68 million to 126 millions gallons of oil into the Gulf. 
 
 As part of that effort, the Interior Department halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf. 
 
 But a lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La., claims the government arbitrarily imposed the moratorium without any proof that the operations posed a threat. Hornbeck says the moratorium could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages. 
 
 During Monday's hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn't bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents. 
 
 "The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer," Montero said. "It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling." 
 
 Feldman asked Rosenblum if it's true that a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Hornbeck suggests "basically things are pretty good" for the company and it can survive the moratorium. Rosenblum said the full impact of the shutdown cannot be calculated. 
 
 "Thousands of businesses will be affected," he said. "These dominoes are falling as we speak." 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs' suit. A lawyer for the state told Feldman that the federal government did not consult Louisiana officials before imposing the moratorium, in violation of federal law. 
 
 Catherine Wannamaker, a lawyer for several environmental groups that support the moratorium, said six months is a reasonable time for drilling to be suspended while the government studies the risks and regulations governing the industry. 
 
 "The risks here are new," she said. 
 
 Government lawyers said the plaintiffs haven't seen much of the data that served as the basis for the Interior Department's decision to suspend drilling operations. 
 
 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar "wants to be sure deepwater drilling is as safe as we all thought it was on the day before the incident on April 20," said government lawyer Brian Collins. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston listened to Monday's hearing over the telephone. Atlas is presiding over a similar case against the Interior Department filed by Diamond Offshore Co., which operates a fleet of drilling rigs. 
 
 Along the coast Monday, some cleanup workers reported progress. 
 
 On Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana, thick globs of oil that washed onto marshy islands a week ago had disappeared, leaving a mass of stained bushes and partly yellowed grasses. 
 
 Blackened lengths of boom surrounded the islands, which were still teeming with brown pelicans, gulls and other seabirds, some with visible signs of oil on their plumage. Nearby, shrimp boats that have been transformed into skimmers hauled absorbent booms across the water's surface, collecting some of the remaining oil. 
 
 Crews aboard Navy and Coast Guard boats teamed with local fishermen using booms to funnel oil into a vessel and haul it away. 
 
 "It looks 10 times better than it did a week ago," said Carey O'Neil, 42, a commercial fisherman idled by the spill who now provides tours of the damaged areas for media and government observers in his 23-foot boat anchored in Grand Isle. "But what impact will this have for the future _ two, three, four, even 10 years? That's what worries me." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers John Flesher and Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Barataria, La., and Robert Barr and Jane Wardell in London contributed to this report. ||||| New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday called a six-month halt on deepwater drilling "needed, appropriate and within our authorities" in announcing he will issue a new order on a moratorium just hours after a federal judge blocked such a mandate. 
 
 "We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar said in a statement. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico." 
 
 Salazar's statement did not give an exact date for when the new order would be imposed, saying only "in the coming days." 
 
 He promised that the new order will include evidence that "eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities." 
 
 U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the ban, which halted all drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued. The White House said it would appeal the ruling. 
 
 President Barack Obama ordered the moratorium after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig off Louisiana. Eleven people died in the blast, which triggered an underwater oil gusher. 
 
 Brian Collins, an attorney for the Justice Department, insisted Monday that the suspension is necessary while officials conduct a safety review. 
 
 But a group of companies that provides boats and equipment to the offshore drilling industry filed a lawsuit claiming the government has no evidence that existing operations pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico and asked the court to declare the moratorium invalid and unenforceable. 
 
 Feldman agreed, writing in his ruling, "an invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 
 
 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country." 
 
 White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government will immediately appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. 
 
 "The president strongly believes, as the Department of Interior and Department of Justice argued yesterday, that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense," Gibbs said. Such drilling "puts the safety of those involved, potentially puts safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment and the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now." 
 
 In issuing the ruling, Feldman said, "the court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings (of the government) and the immense scope of the moratorium. The plaintiffs assert that they have suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm as a result of the moratorium. The court agrees." 
 
 Transocean President Steve Newman, whose company owned the Deepwater Horizon, said Tuesday that he supported ending the moratorium, and the office of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a brief in support of blocking the moratorium. 
 
 Jindal and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, were among those asking the Obama administration Tuesday not to appeal the ruling. 
 
 "I'm going to strongly urge the administration not to appeal this ruling, but to try to find a way forward that would achieve the president's goals for safety and responsibility, but at the same time would not jeopardize and threaten a very vibrant and necessary industry for decades," Landrieu told reporters during a conference call. 
 
 iReport: In the Gulf? Share your experience with BP 
 
 Legendary Texas oil and gas executive T. Boone Pickens also said such a ban is not needed. 
 
 "The accident that BP has had could be likened to qualified pilots in an airliner and they have pilot error," he told CNN's "Campbell Brown" program Tuesday night. "(An) airliner crashes, starts a 50,000-acre forest fire and we shut down all flying? No more airlines until we have six months to see what happened?" 
 
 Ken Wells, the president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, said Tuesday that while the ruling is positive for his group -- which represents many of the ships that service oil rigs -- the decision is "tempered by the realization this is a big, strong government. And if they want to keep fighting on this, they will keep fighting." 
 
 Wells told CNN that many of the small business owners and workers who support the rigs felt "like innocent bystanders in all this," adding that many of them are losing their jobs left and right. He said Feldman's decision "may help our industry survive." 
 
 Government estimates indicate as much as 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) of oil may be flowing into the Gulf every day, and the gusher has already taken a serious toll on tourism and the fishing industry in Gulf Coast states. 
 
 BP said Tuesday it had collected 25,830 barrels -- 1.08 million gallons -- of oil from the gushing undersea well over the past 24 hours. The amount is the most ever collected; the previous record was set Thursday when 25,290 barrels were collected. 
 
 The company announced Tuesday that it will donate net revenues it receives from the sale of oil recovered from the spill to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation. 
 
 Also Tuesday, protesters in London, England, briefly disrupted an oil conference that BP CEO Tony Hayward pulled out of a day earlier. 
 
 Just before the welcoming speech by BP chief of staff Steve Westwell, who was standing in for Hayward at the World National Oil Companies Congress, a woman got on stage and started shouting. Security quickly removed her. 
 
 The woman was Greenpeace campaigner Emma Gibson, who told the crowd that "because BP is incapable of telling you the truth, I'm going to tell you what you need to know." 
 
 Hayward decided not to attend the conference because of his "commitment to the Gulf of Mexico relief effort," a BP spokesman said Monday. 
 
 Westwell started his speech by apologizing on Hayward's behalf for him not being at the conference. He said the past few weeks have been "extremely difficult for BP." 
 
 "It has been hugely shocking for us, for America, and for the rest of the world," Westwell said. "Everyone at BP is devastated, and we deeply regret what's happened. Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones. And we are profoundly aware of our responsibilities to those people whose livelihoods and neighborhoods have suffered." 
 
 Kenneth Feinberg, who is overseeing BP's $20 billion escrow claims fund, met with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley on Tuesday in what Riley described as a "very, very productive meeting" to discuss ways to accelerate the claims payment process. 
 
 "I will be back quickly to spend as much time as it takes to make sure that this program is designed and implemented in an expeditious manner," Feinberg said. 
 
 BP said in a statement Monday that costs from the disaster now total about $2 billion, including the cost of the response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. To date, more than 65,000 claims have been submitted and more than 32,000 payments totaling more than $105 million have been made, the company said. 
 
 Elsewhere, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said the Islamic republic, which has chilly relations with the United States, would consider helping America with the oil spill if asked, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency. 
 
 "The difficult solution of an oil spill, from the standpoint that it's a humanitarian problem, persuades all countries to offer help," ILNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying. 
 
 CNN's Anderson Cooper, Eric Marrapodi, Chris Lawrence, Alan Silverleib, Matthew Chance, Vivian Kuo and Ethan Harp contributed to this report.
– The owner of the busted rig spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico is itching to get back to work. Transocean chief Steven Newman slammed the Obama administration's 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling at an oil conference today, the AP reports. There are things the administration "could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary 6-month time limit," Newman said. The government says the ban is needed to give regulators time to study ways of making deepwater drilling safer. A group of companies that supply the offshore drilling industry have filed a lawsuit challenging the ban and a New Orleans judge has promised a decision by tomorrow, CNN reports. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office has filed a brief supporting the lawsuit. "This is an environmental disaster. Let's not make an economic disaster," an attorney for the state said.