Gas processors and oil drillers are on their own to rebuild offshore platforms and drillings rigs and will not receive federal funding as they work to restore production following the onslaught of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Interior Secretary Gale Norton last week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Norton announced that damage estimates per company are in the billions of dollars. The latest figures released by the Minerals Management Service, part of the Interior Department, show that 90% of Gulf Coast oil production remains out of service, with 72% of the Gulf Coast??¢â???¬â???¢s natural gas production remaining shut down. Since the hurricanes, the nation has lost a cumulative production of some 46 million barrels of oil and 220 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
