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Hurricane Rita takes toll on Gulf of Mexico drilling rigs
Hurricane Rita, coming on the heels of Katrina and contributing to all the havoc her sister hurricane doled out, appears to have taken a heavy toll on the Gulf of Mexico’s offshore drilling fleet.
Rita and Katrina, both category four and five hurricanes before coming ashore, also crippled offshore oil and gas facilities, with the lion’s share of Gulf production shut-in as of Sept. 29, some five weeks after operators first evacuated platforms and drilling rigs ahead of Katrina.
Production was not fully recovered when Rita came along, forcing yet another mass evacuation of offshore facilities. In fact, more than half of the oil and a third of daily natural gas production in the Gulf remained off line before Rita’s untimely arrival.
According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, 98.59 percent or 1.48 million barrels of daily oil production and nearly 80 percent or 7.98 billion cubic feet of daily gas production were shut-in as of Sept. 29.
Moreover, between Aug. 26 and Sept. 29, a cumulative total of 39.36 million barrels or 7.19 percent of annual oil production and 188.54 billion cubic feet or 5.17 percent of annual gas production remained shut-in. Offshore rigs hard hit by Rita As damage reports began trickling in after Rita, it became apparent offshore drilling rigs were particularly hard hit by the hurricane’s 175 mph winds and the huge waves generated by that storm.
The Financial Times of London concluded that Rita caused more damage to offshore drilling rigs than any other storm in history and would force companies to delay exploring for oil and gas in both the United States and overseas. The newspaper noted that the path Katrina took was through mature areas of the Gulf where there are mainly production platforms. But Rita came to the west where there is lots of exploratory drilling.
Contract drilling company Noble reported that four of its semi-submersible rigs operating in the Gulf’s Green Canyon area — Therald Martin, Paul Romano, Amos Runner and Max Smith — broke from their moorings and sustained varying damage. The rigs were found between 75 and 123 miles from their original locations.
Noble said its Lorris Bouzigard semi-submersible also broke at least one of its 10 mooring lines, with the remaining lines holding the unit in position nearly a mile from its original location, and the submersible Joe Alford moved about eight miles off its original location. Noble’s Jim Thompson already was undergoing inspection for damage caused by Katrina. Transocean Marianas forced off location Transocean said its moored semi-submersible rig Marianas was forced off its drilling location during Hurricane Rita and was grounded in shallow water at Eugene Island Block 133 about 140 miles northwest of its pre-storm location.
“An initial assessment of the rig indicates significant damage to the unit’s mooring system, but a more complete rig inspection is ongoing,” Transocean said.
Additionally, the company said its semi-submersible Deepwater Nautilus, which sustained damage to its mooring system during Katrina and was undergoing repairs, was set adrift when a tow line failed. The rig was being towed out of the path of Rita when the line broke.
Workers aboard Nautilus used the rig’s thrusters to navigate the rig to a location about 40 miles south of Grand Isle, La., where the rig remains grounded, Transocean said. GlobalSantaFe, Diamond, Rowan also report damage Other contract drilling companies hurt by Rita include GlobalSantaFe, Diamond Offshore and Rowan.
GlobalSantaFe said two of its oil and gas drilling rigs, the GSF Adriatic VII and GSF High Island III, could not be found on their drilling locations during a preliminary search by fixed-wing aircraft on Sept. 25, noting that the two missing jack-ups had a combined net book value of $22.2 million and were insured for $125 million.
However, there were “no signs” of major damage to the company’s other rigs, GlobalSantaFe said, adding that the company’s “ultra-deepwater” drillship GSF C.R. Luigs was safely moved off location before Rita’s arrival.
Diamond said drilling rigs Ocean Saratoga and Ocean Star also broke free from their moorings as Rita passed west of the semi-submersible, but the company said both rigs were eventually found because they were tracked during the storm by onboard locator beacons.
The Saratoga was found grounded in about 35 feet of water on Vermilion Block 111, about 100 miles northwest of the rig’s original location on Green Canyon Block 157, Diamond said. The Star went aground in about 35 feet of water on Eugene Island Block 142, also about 100 miles north of the unit’s original location on Green Canyon Block 768, the company said, adding that start-up crews re-boarded the rigs to assess their condition.
However, initial fly-bys of other Diamond rigs in the path of Rita indicated no significant damage, but the company said it would not be able to make a complete assessment until workers re-boarded the rigs. More jack-up rigs missing Rowan also reported jack-up rigs Odessa and Halifax missing following the storm, and said the hull of jack-up rig Louisiana apparently detached from its legs and was aground offshore Louisiana. Additionally, the company said it was also unable to account for the rig Fort Worth during a high-altitude aerial survey.
The Odessa, Halifax and Louisiana were operating under contracts that provided for total revenues of about $210,000 per day. The rigs were insured for an amount exceeding their value, but Rowan noted that the company does not carry insurance against loss of revenue.
Meanwhile, Chevron said its Typhoon tension leg platform, located in 2,000 feet of water in the Green Canyon area, was severed from its mooring and suffered severe damage during Rita. The facility was said to be secured, but the company provided no additional details.
ConocoPhillips said assessment teams returned to the four Gulf fields it operates following Rita. The company’s largest offshore asset in the Gulf, Magnolia, suffered minimal damage and production was expected to resume soon, contingent on resumption of operations at related onshore infrastructure such as pipelines and utilities, the company said.
Initial assessments of ConocoPhillips’ three smaller fields found some damage, but the production impact was not expected to be significant, the company said.
Enbridge said it natural gas pipelines in the Gulf were still shut down on Sept. 26 with crews only starting to assess facilities following Rita. Company pipeline systems Garden Banks and Stingray were located in the path of Rita. Widespread damage from Katrina Before Rita, Katrina had caused widespread facility damage and major supply disruptions across offshore Gulf.
Shell Oil reported damage to four of its offshore platforms following Katrina, with production down to 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, well short of its usual 450,000 barrels per day. Shell is the largest operator in the Gulf and alone accounted for 30 percent of the Gulf’s entire 1.58 million barrels of daily oil output prior to the hurricane. Katrina caused severe topside damage to Shell Oil’s Mars production platform, which was expected to keep Mars crude output down until early next year.
Other large Gulf producers were ready to pump following Katrina but couldn’t get their production ashore because of damage to key pipelines and onshore storage facilities. Big Gulf producer BP was said to be considering options, including barging, tankering, and bypassing third-party operated pipelines to get its production to market.
—Ray Tyson
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