Sunday, September 4, 2005

Oil, natural gas lines return to life in Gulf

Bloomberg News reports

Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

Oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico rose for a fourth day Saturday as energy companies continued to bring back output lost when Hurricane Katrina swept past platforms last week.

The storm has shut 1.18 million barrels of daily oil output, or 79 percent of normal Gulf production, and 5.8 billion cubic feet a day of gas production, or 58 percent of normal output, according to a report from the Minerals Management Service in Washington.

About 30 percent of U.S. oil production comes from offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The area accounts for 24 percent of U.S. natural gas output.

Separately, Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth-biggest U.S. oil company, expects all seven of its refineries to be operating at capacity Monday, the company said Saturday.

Marathon also said it received approval for a loan of 1.5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The loan will help provide crude oil for the company's Midwest refineries, which include Michigan's only refinery, in Detroit.