Gulf Of Mexico

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration moved yesterday to open an area off the Virginia coast to oil and gas drilling, a step that environmentalists warned could lead to the weakening of the long-standing ban on new energy exploration off much of the U.S. coast. That ban was inspired by a devastating oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969. But with high gasoline prices and concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, pro-drilling forces are more hopeful of persuading Congress -- even with its Democratic majority -- to relax the drilling ban. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne unveiled yesterday a five-year plan that calls for offering drilling leases in an area off Virginia that has been off limits since the 1980s, a move that is subject to presidential and congressional approval.

NEW YORK -- Kerr-McGee Corp. said yesterday that it agreed to buy Oryx Energy Co., an oil exploration company, for $3.14 billion in stock and assumed debt, expanding its reserves in the rich fields of the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea.The buyout values Oryx at $15.77 a share based on yesterday's closing stock prices, or $1.68 billion, and represents a 37 percent premium for Oryx shareholders over Wednesday's closing price of $11.50. Kerr-McGee, an oil and chemicals company, will assume $1.3 billion in debt.

PORT O'CONNOR, Texas -- Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, charted the Great Lakes, discovered the mouth of the Mississippi and claimed half the continent for France.But he was not well-liked.His own men -- those who didn't desert him -- sank his ships, poisoned his food and, eventually, shot him in the head.Three hundred years after La Salle's final voyage, however, archaeologists love him.And Texans are suddenly enthralled with the story of the explorer's failed attempt to establish an ocean route to the Mississippi and a French colony on its bank.

Three of some of the world's rarest animals -- a trio of battered Kemp's ridley sea turtles that breed on beaches in the Gulf of Mexico -- arrived in critical condition at the National Aquarium in Baltimore last night to be nursed back to health.The turtles, which had beached themselves on Cape Cod after traveling into the frigid waters of the Northeast, were found in a comalike condition because of the weather. A dozen of the turtles were recovered by the New England Aquarium and three of them were transferred to Baltimore, arriving about 5 p.m. yesterday.

I will be going to Sarasota, Fla., for a few days in late December and want to catch a marlin. Where can I charter a boat? How much would it cost?You're fishing off the wrong pier. Charter-boat operators we contacted said that while a marlin might be found in the deeper parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the fish is more like the baseball team that has adopted its name: It lives closer to Miami, in the Atlantic.But that doesn't mean there aren't some challenging angling opportunities off Sarasota.

LAFITTE, La. - Albert "Jacko" Darda, a prominent shrimper from the bayou country below New Orleans, explains what it means to trawl a net along the Gulf of Mexico's bottom and make a "Forrest Gump" drag."

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico -- To the people of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, it's unclear whether their governor's views on air conditioning are the cause or a symptom of what they sometimes refer to as his "esoterismo."Tamaulipas borders Texas from Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico, then stretches south into the Tropic of Cancer. In such a sweltering region, air cooling, to those who can afford it, would seem a necessity. But Manuel Cavazos Lerma will not cool his office -- though it is said that the stables where he keeps his thoroughbred horses are air-conditioned.

ABOARD THE ACADIANA -- The instant the captain cuts the engines, the crew of the research vessel Acadiana shifts into swift, synchronized action: scooping water samples from the ocean surface and the seabed; lowering an array of instruments overboard to gather data from the depths; whirling and zapping the water in the on-board laboratory until it yields its secrets.Then, almost before the winch can hoist the last instrument back on deck, the engines roar to life, and the ship heads for the next sampling station - an invisible point along an imaginary line flung out into the Gulf of Mexico.

The most powerful man in Russia today is Yeltsin's surgeon. Maryland's choice is simple: We get either our crabs from the Gulf of Mexico, or our crab pickers.Bill told the U.N. what he thinks of it, and when this election is over will go back and tell it what he really thinks.Archaeologists in Australia have discovered that the first painters 75,000 years ago were abstract expressionists.Pub Date: 9/25/96

The summer floodwaters have receded from the swollen Mississippi River, and life in the Midwest is slowly returning to normal. But where did all that water go?Over the last two months, scientists have discovered that it turned into a well-defined river of less-salty water at the ocean's surface that flowed across the Gulf of Mexico, rounded the tip of Florida and headed north on a course that may already have brought it to somewhere off the New England coast.A month ago, scientists on a ship off the south coast of Florida detected a strange region of water in the Gulf Stream that was less salty and much cloudier than normal seawater.

A Miami television station and newspaper reported that blood tests show Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth was driving drunk when he fatally struck a pedestrian last weekend. WSVN-TV reported yesterday that unnamed sources with knowledge of the investigation said Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was between .08 and .16. The legal limit is .08. The Miami Herald also reported that an unnamed source said Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit. The Miami Beach Police Department wouldn't confirm the reports to the Associated Press.

There are a few of us here in the newsroom who are still praying for a really big snowstorm - call us nutty, if you want - before the winter of 2009 recedes into memory. So, it's not uncommon for us to beat a path to our in-house weather oracle, Frank Roylance, who keeps his eyes on the skies and for developing lows over the Gulf of Mexico. Those southern-bred storms give us snow-lovers hope and have the potential of being big snow-makers as they roll up the Eastern Seaboard, sucking up all that wonderful Atlantic Ocean moisture that translates into snow, snow, snow and more snow!

Increasing corn production is expected to spawn an oxygen-starved "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico larger than anything seen in 23 years of recordkeeping - an 8,800-square-mile area, roughly the size of New Jersey - researchers said yesterday. "It's had a disastrous effect on the fisheries for sure," said R. Eugene Turner, a research scientist with Louisiana State University. An increase in corn production to manufacture ethanol-based fuels has jacked up the nutrients flowing down the Mississippi River to the gulf, where they deplete oxygen in the water, Turner said.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration moved yesterday to open an area off the Virginia coast to oil and gas drilling, a step that environmentalists warned could lead to the weakening of the long-standing ban on new energy exploration off much of the U.S. coast. That ban was inspired by a devastating oil spill off Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1969. But with high gasoline prices and concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, pro-drilling forces are more hopeful of persuading Congress -- even with its Democratic majority -- to relax the drilling ban. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne unveiled yesterday a five-year plan that calls for offering drilling leases in an area off Virginia that has been off limits since the 1980s, a move that is subject to presidential and congressional approval.

WASHINGTON -- As the curtain prepared to fall on the Republican-controlled Congress, GOP leaders pushed for approval of what is likely to be the last major pro-drilling bill during the Bush presidency - a measure that would open a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration. The drilling provision was part of a $45 billion tax and trade bill that was pending before the House. If that chamber passed it before the night ended, it would likely go to the Senate today as the lame-duck Congress wrapped up its business.

Chevron Corp. and two partners said yesterday that they had tapped a potentially huge source of oil in the Gulf of Mexico's deep waters, raising hopes that further discoveries in the region could help ease the nation's oil supply woes. The successful test of the deepest well ever drilled in U.S. territory showed such promise that some think the undersea oil pool could be the largest domestic discovery of crude since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field began flowing nearly 40 years ago. "An opportunity like this only comes once every few decades," said Daniel Yergin, chairman of Boston-based Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The Sun brings you a weekly report of key votes in the Congress.Here's how Maryland senators voted on major roll call votes last week.The House was in recess. The full Congress is in recess until Sept. 5. Issues before the Senate last week Gulf of Mexico Drilling: Senators passed, 71-25, a bill to open about 8.34 million acres in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas extraction while setting a 125-mile buffer zone between Florida and the drilling area. A yes vote was to send the bill to a House-Senate conference.

Issues before Congress last week To find out the district in which you live or contact your lawmakers, go to: baltimoresun.com/representatives Minors' Abortions Senators voted, 65-34, to make it a U.S. crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion in order to evade a home-state law requiring parental notification in advance of the procedure. A yes vote was to send S 403 to conference with House. Sex Education Senators defeated, 48-51, an amendment to S 403 authorizing federal grants to promote sex education as a deterrent to teen pregnancies.

WASHINGTON -- With political anxiety on Capitol Hill rising along with gasoline prices, the Senate voted yesterday to open a large section of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. The bill, approved 71-25, must be reconciled with a broader House measure that would relax the decades-long ban on drilling in most coastal waters, including along the Pacific coast. Senators from both parties, attuned to constituents' ire over high fuel costs, were eager to pass energy legislation before heading home for the summer recess.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate moved closer yesterday to approving legislation that would make 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico available for oil and natural gas drilling and end a quarter-century ban against tapping the rich energy resources in coastal waters. Facing increasing prices for crude oil and natural gas, which have left Americans paying more for gasoline and for heating and cooling their homes, the bill's proponents say this represents an opportunity for America to increase domestic supplies of energy.