New Wave of Oil Drilling.

As Congress moves toward opening protected Alaskan wilderness to petroleum drilling, energy company activity is picking up in California's coastal waters, where new exploration has been blocked for more than two decades.

Drillers are reworking wells and considering reviving old platforms in places where exploration is allowed. They're attempting to extend the life of leases on undeveloped offshore tracts holding a combined estimated 1 billion barrels of oil and 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas that the companies have been forbidden to tap.

Representatives have passed separate measures that lift the federal moratorium on drilling in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, commonly known as ANWR.

(4-25-05, The Los Angeles Times.)