At a loss: The LSU AgCenter estimates that the floods in south Louisiana have caused at least $110 million worth of damage to agriculture—and the figure is likely to grow, The Associated Press reports. Economist Kurt Guidry says in a news release that factors include damage to crop yield and quality, damage to infrastructure and loss of stored commodities. He says typical summer rains could slow the fall of floodwaters, delaying harvest and doing even more damage. Guidry says few soybeans were harvested before the floods, and that crop has about $46 million in known damage. He says rice is likely to take a $33 million hit, corn $10 million and sugarcane at least $3 million. Guidry says livestock deaths are not yet clear. He says reduced pasture and forage will cost producers nearly $2 million.
It’s all online: Five months after protesters disrupted an oil and gas lease sale for tracts in the Gulf of Mexico, the government is livestreaming a lease sale but closing the site in New Orleans where bids are read. The Associated Press reports Wednesday’s sale, which will include 23.8 million acres available for drilling and exploration off the Texas coast, will be the first federal offshore oil and gas auction broadcast live on the internet. The sales have been met with protests from opponents of oil and gas drilling in the Gulf. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokesperson Caryl Fagot says the protest played into the decision to livestream Wednesday’s sale, but the agency was also looking for modernized ways to hold the hold and broaden the sale. Read the full story.
Steep fall: Government analysts are projecting the flow of oil from U.S. shale fields to fall 14% by 2017, as the reverberations of the recent crash in crude prices are felt, Fuelfix.com reports. Production from those shale fields increased exponentially over the past decade as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques were improved. Shale oil now accounts for more than half of the nation’s crude output. But according to a report Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shale oil output—which peaked in 2015 at 4.9 million barrels a day—will fall to 4.2 million barrels by the end of next year. The fall is “mainly attributed to low oil prices and the resulting cuts in investment. However, production declines will continue to be mitigated by reductions in cost and improvements in drilling techniques,” the report reads. Read the full story.
