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It's a Keeper! imho US Gulf Oil, Gas Production To Recover By Mid-06 -Bodman


DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
December 8, 2005 2:56 p.m.

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WASHINGTON (AP)--Oil and natural gas production in the Gulf Coast area probably won't recover from this year's hurricanes until next summer, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said Thursday, urging conservation as the cost of heating homes is expected to soar this winter.

"The infrastructure of our country took a real blow with Hurricanes Rita and Katrina," Bodman told reporters outside the White House.

"Even to this day, we have about a third of the natural gas and a third of the oil that is produced in the Gulf of Mexico still shut-in due to the damage that was done," he said. "That's not going to be back up and online, my guess is, until summertime."

Short supplies will contribute to high energy prices this heating season, said Bodman, who urged Americans to step up conservation.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration recently predicted that households heating primarily with natural gas can expect to spend about 50% more this winter.

Advocates for the poor have argued that as much as $5.1 billion in federal energy assistance is needed to keep up with the high fuel oil and natural gas prices people will face this winter. Energy legislation enacted earlier this year authorizes that much money, but Congress has refused to appropriate it.