Transcript: Interior Secretary Gale Norton

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," September 7, 2005, that was edited for clarity.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Now to recovery in the energy world, where the oil and gas production in the Gulf is getting back on track, slowly but surely.

Joining me now from the north lawn of the White House is Gale Norton, Ms. Norton, of course, the secretary of the interior, the department, which oversees oil production in the Gulf.

Secretary, good to have you.

GALE NORTON, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: Thank you. It's good to join you today.

CAVUTO: What's the latest you can tell us?

NORTON: We have been making good progress on getting the offshore facilities back online. The companies and their employees have been working very hard.

And we went from 90 to 95 percent of the production offline when the hurricane came through to, today, 57 percent of the oil production remains offline, but that's a significant improvement. And 40 percent of natural gas remains offline.

CAVUTO: What would you assume, Secretary, will be the wait to be fully online?

NORTON: It's going to be, we think, about until the end of the month. We should by then have about 90 percent of the production back online.

But there is still a percentage from platforms that were significantly damaged that is going to take four to six months to repair. That's really about four platforms and one major junction facility. And so, offshore, things look pretty good. We did have 41 platforms or other structures that were destroyed. But those tended to be the very older structures that produced very little in energy. And so, the big offshore areas that were further offshore had very little damage to them.

CAVUTO: All right. Secretary, we wish you well. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.

NORTON: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Secretary Gale Norton of the Department of Interior outside the White House.

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