Washington ? Oil and natural gas production in the Gulf Coast area probably will not recover from this year’s hurricanes until next summer, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said Thursday, urging conservation as the cost of heating homes is expected to soar this winter.

“The infrastructure of our country took a real blow with Hurricanes Rita and Katrina,” Bodman said outside the White House. “Even to this day, we have about a third of the natural gas and a third of the oil that is produced in the Gulf of Mexico still shut-in due to the damage that was done. That’s not going to be back up and online, my guess is, until summertime.”

Short supplies will contribute to high energy prices this heating season, said Bodman, who urged Americans to step up conservation.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration recently predicted that households heating with natural gas could expect to spend from 50 to 70 percent more this winter, depending on location. The agency this week scaled back its heating costs predictions slightly because of mild weather during November.

But with the recent onslaught of cold, stormy weather in the Midwest and Northeast, natural gas prices surged Thursday by 9 percent to a new high of nearly $15 per thousand cubic feet for gas to be delivered in January. A year ago the price was $7 per thousand cubic feet.

Curt Talken, who works for Lawrence Parks and Recreation, endures single-digit temperatures as he clears snow from sidewalks Dec. 8, 2005 in downtown Lawrence. With the arrival of cold weather, officials say consumers should work to conserve heat.

Advocates for the poor have argued that as much as $5.1 billion in federal energy aid is needed to keep up with the high fuel oil and natural gas prices people will face this winter. Energy legislation enacted this year authorizes that much money, but Congress has refused to appropriate it.

The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been funded at about $2 billion a year for several years. Congress, as part of a spending bill now being crafted, is proposing $2.2 billion for this fiscal year and an additional $1 billion in one-time emergency funds.

State agencies that regulate electric utilities, the natural gas utility industry and advocates for the poor all in recent weeks have urged the White House and Congress to increase LIHEAP funding to the full $5.1 billion authorization.