Bush officials say they're concerned about natural gas shortages

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http://www.klfy.com/global/story.asp?s=3843594&ClientType=Printable

Bush officials say they're concerned about natural gas shortages

BATON ROUGE, La. Senior Bush administration officials are worried about possible shortages of natural gas, and say that the region's production may not recover for months.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Interior Secretary Gail Norton are touring the Gulf Coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They spoke as they flew to from Houston to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's storage site at Bayou Choctaw, about 12 miles from Baton Rouge.

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Bodman says authorities don't know as much about the damage to the natural gas supply system as they do about the effect on crude oil production. He says that in addition to possible pipeline damage, the hurricane also shut down gas processing facilities on-shore.

Norton says 90 percent of the Gulf oil platforms will be able to produce by the end of the monty, but damage to on-shore facilities is expected to keep oil production down.