Oil, gas production slowly returns in Gulf

Ray Tyson

Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production, on two occasions this year almost entirely shut-in due to a couple of nasty hurricanes, is slowly recovering from the unprecedented beatings.

However, a significant amount of production remained shut-in across the Gulf, well over two months after offshore operators began to evacuate platforms and drilling rigs ahead of the first storm, Katrina.

As of Nov. 10, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported that 49.09 percent or 736,279 barrels of oil per day and 40.16 percent or 4.016 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day remained shut-in.

The cumulative shut-in oil production from Aug. 26 to Nov. 10 totaled 82.7 million barrels, or a little more than 15 percent of 547.5 million barrels of average annual production, according to MMS.

During the same period, MMS said the cumulative shut-in natural gas production amounted to 426.4 billion cubic feet, or 11.7 percent of 3.65 trillion cubic feet of average yearly production.

Additionally, just over 23 percent of the 819 manned platforms in the Gulf remained evacuated as of Nov. 10, MMS said, adding that only 3.73 percent of the drilling rigs remained evacuated.