Significant GOM production restored

A significant amount of the remaining Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production shut-in during last year’s devastating hurricanes was restored over the past month, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

MMS said 227,888 barrels of daily oil production remained shut-in as of June 1, compared to 324,445 bpd reported shut-in as of May 3. The remaining 227,888 bpd of shut-in oil represents 15.19 percent of about 1.5 million barrels of normal daily oil production.

MMS said 1.099 billion cubic feet of daily natural gas production remained shut-in as of June 1, compared to 1.295 bcf shut-in as of May 3. The remaining 1.009 bcf per day of shut-in gas represents 10.99 percent of 10 bcf of normal daily gas production.

The cumulative shut-in oil production in the U.S. Gulf from Aug. 26, 2005, to June 1, 2006, totaled 162,425,332 barrels, which is equivalent to 29.67 percent of annual oil production of about 547.5 million barrels.

During the same period, the cumulative shut-in natural gas production amounted to 784.502 bcf, which is equivalent to 21.493 percent of 3.65 trillion cubic feet of annual gas production in the U.S. Gulf.

—Ray Tyson