Near 70 per cent of U.S. GoM oil output offline in wake of Hurricane Laura

Even though Hurricane Laura has moved from the Gulf of Mexico onto the mainland, almost 70 per cent of U.S. oil production remains shut-in.

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Sunday that it continues to monitor offshore oil and gas operations on platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Hurricane Laura.

The team works with offshore operators and other state and federal agencies until operations return to normal and the storms are no longer a threat to the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities.

Based on data from offshore operator reports on Sunday, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 137 production platforms, 21.31 per cent of the 643 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

For comparison, this is much lower than the 297 production platforms that were evacuated on Thursday.

Furthermore, personnel have been evacuated from two non-dynamically positioned rigs, equivalent to 16.67 per cent of the 12 rigs of this type currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the reports, all dynamically positioned rigs have returned to their working locations.

On Thursday, 50 per cent of all dynamically positioned rigs were evacuated and off location.

From operator reports, BSEE estimates that approximately 69.76 per cent of the current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in. As for gas, BSEE estimates that approximately 49.87 per cent of the natural gas production in the Gulf is still shut-in.

As it stands in Sunday’s report, 1,290,570 bopd of production is still shut in while 1,351.55 mmcfd of gas is shut-in as a result of Hurricane Laura.

To remind, Laura’s was seen as the largest threat to the production of hydrocarbons in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina.

It is worth noting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA has now classified Hurricane Laura as a tropical depression.