April 30, 2007
Summer Fun
As the summer draws nearer it’s not just school children who are rejoicing. The Houston Chronicle reports that today Washington plans to announce a new round of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and off the shores of Virginia and Alaska. Oil companies produce more than 1.6m barrels of oil a day and 4,000bn cubic feet of natural gas a year from federal waters. The government hopes to increase that by offering new plots, which had previously been off limits, over the next five years in order to stem the country’s growing dependence on foreign supplies. But summer also brings with it the threat of hurricanes and this season is expected to be fiercer than the last. Having learned its bitter lesson during hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita in the past three years, the industry is bracing itself by trying to find better ways to secure its rigs, some of which are worth upwards of $1bn, the Chronicle also reports.
