‘Inadvertant shutdown’ occurs on Mars oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico

The Shell spokeswoman said that the company would not speculate on how the markets might react to the current shut-in or what effect, if any, the incident would have on the White House’s controversial plans to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by mid-2005.

The loss of oil production from Mars, however, could have obvious political implications for plans to refill the SPR because the program, since the administration of former President Bill Clinton, relies on royalty oil from the gulf.

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