With Tropical Storm Gustav setting its sights on the Gulf of Mexico, oil facilities in the region are facing their first major threat since 2005, when Hurricanes Rita and Katrina knocked out nearly every barrel of oil production and sent prices soaring to then-record levels.
But this time around, if Gustav intensifies and heads into the Gulf as expected, experts say reinforcements have made production far less vulnerable than it was three years ago.
Drilling rigs and production platforms moored to sea floor in the Gulf had been attached with eight lines, and are now required to be moored with 12 to 16 lines.
New rigs were built higher above the water, and old rigs were strengthened, according to Andy Radford, a policy advisor at the American Petroleum Institute.
And pipelines, which carry most of the oil and gas from the production platforms to the shore, now have to be buried deeper beneath the sea floor, said Barbara Shook, a Houston-based analyst with the Energy Intelligence Group.
"The industry is probably in the best shape it's ever been in because of what they've learned over the last few years," said Shook.
Anyone who buys gasoline better hope so.
At 1.3 million barrels a day, the Gulf is home to over a quarter of the oil produced in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. Plus, it accounts for over 10% of the country's natural gas production.
