The crude calculus: drivers are longing for the days of cheap gasoline, and oil companies are...

From the frigid North Slope of Alaska to the gale-swept North Sea, oil companies have worked for decades in the harshest conditions that nature can dish out. But the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico dealt the industry its worst lashing ever as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped through the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch last year.

A year later, the industry is still recovering from those two storms, which destroyed 115 offshore oil platforms, damaged 52 others and slashed nearly a third of the annual oil production from the Gulf of Mexico. Besides the damage to o