1.5 million barrels of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas are pumped from the Gulf of Mexico. There are more than 7,000 fields in operations in the region of 650,000 square miles. While few companies have begun to evacuate operational staff from the region on Friday, on saturday evening with the direction of Katrina heading westward Shell, Kerr-McGee, Exxon Mobil, Anadarko Petroleum, Murphy Oil and Devon Energy have announced plans to shut production. |