Hurricanes seen complicating efforts to meet energy act deadlines

Washington (Platts)--29Sep2005

The substantial impacts of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Gulf of Mexico
oil and natural gas production areas are compounding the difficulties of
meeting regulatory deadlines established in the new Energy Policy Act, federal
officials said Thursday.
     Speaking at a conference sponsored by the Energy Bar Assn, Dept of
Interior Deputy Solicitor Matthew McKeown said that the agency was currently
working to meet the "very compelling deadlines" established in the act, while
at the same time roughly 1,600 department employees are in the Gulf trying to
bring production back on line. "It's an amazing amount of work and
challenges," he said.
     Thomas Readinger, associate director of offshore issues with the Minerals
Management Service, noted that between Katrina and Rita about "2,900 of 4,000
[energy] facilities were exposed to hurricane-force winds." 
     And while MMS works to repair damaged infrastructure, Readinger said the
agency is working to meet several Energy Policy Act deadlines, including an
Outer Continental Shelf resource inventory due early 2005, several production
incentives, and a new regulatory process for OCS development.
     Lisa Epifani, an attorney with the Senate Energy Committee, said that
members of Congress are already getting calls for a new piece of energy
legislation to address the sharp increases in gas and oil prices that have
resulted in part from the hurricane shut-ins. 
     But Epifani warned that, regardless of whatever legislation Congress has
passed or will pass, easy answers for high energy prices "are not going to be
had."

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