Crude oil is under pressure. Just when oil prices were starting to ease, more news has arrived spreading uncertainty into the market. On top of the jitters caused by Iran's uranium enrichment programme (see p4), security fears in Nigeria (Fairplay, 7 September) and Prudhoe Bay cutbacks, BP announced that its Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico was to undergo seabed repairs. This will take the facility out of service and delay delivery of its first oil from early 2007 to mid-2008. With a planned output of 250,000 barrels of crude and 200M f~3 of gas per day, it would have made a significant contribution to US domestic supplies.
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