U.S. Oil and Gas Production Still Recovering

Oil and natural gas production from the storm-battered Gulf of Mexico continues to recover, Reuters reports. Around 727,000 barrels per day, or 48.47 percent of the Gulf's 1.5 million bpd of crude production, remained shut, along with 3.742 billion cubic feet per day, or 37.42 percent of the region's natural gas output, the report said. The complete recovery of the region's energy operations will take until the middle of 2006, about three months longer than previously estimated. Oil and gas production platforms and undersea pipelines took a severe beating from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Since Aug. 26, hurricanes have shut more than 85 million barrels of crude production -- the equivalent of about four days of U.S. consumption. Source: Reuters