Hurricane Irene marks the start of peak hurricane season starting August 20^th and ending October 20^th. Meteorologists project Irene to become a category three by 8:00 AM EDT heading north up the Atlantic coast and will not impact offshore deep and shallow water natural gas production areas located in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. It is important to note here that offshore production is becoming increasingly less important only accounting for nine percent of US production verses the sixteen percent it represented in 2005 when Katrina hit thanks the shale gas revolution we have witnessed.

To further track Hurricane Irene please visit the National Hurricane Center at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ and Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201109.html