Hurricane Helene Shuts in Nearly 30% of GoM Crude Production

Hurricane Helene, churning in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), is expected to rapidly intensify before making landfall, impacting offshore oil and gas operations and shutting in a significant percentage of production, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)’s latest report on Sept. 25.

The storm may develop into a Category 4 hurricane with winds of up to 156 miles per hour before making landfall in Florida in the evening of Sept. 26, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said on Sept. 25.

Operators in the GoM have halted some offshore operations, shutting in approximately 29% of crude (511,000 bbl/d) and 17% of natural gas (313 MMcf/d) production in the Gulf of Mexico as of Sept. 25, the BSEE said based off of estimates from 10 operators’ reports.

Shut-in production outpaced the number of barrels sidelined at refineries by Sept. 24, when only 16% of crude had been shut-in, according to Mizuho Securities USA’s Sept. 25 energy daily report. The storm’s associated loss in demand created a build of 4.3 MMbbl of oil.

“The slide in the refinery utilization rate because of the storm, however, was enough to force a draw of 3.4 million barrels of gasoline and 1.1 million barrels of distillate,” Mizuho said.

Personnel have been evacuated from 17 production platforms, almost 5% of the 371 manned platforms in the GoM, BSEE said. One non-dynamically positioned (DP) rig was evacuated out of the five non-DPs operating in the GoM.

Among DPs, unmoored to the seafloor, three out of the 21 currently operating in the GoM were moved out of the storm’s path. Personnel remained on board.

Earlier this month, operations in the U.S. Gulf Coast were also impacted by Hurricane Francine. The BSEE had reported almost 42% of oil production and 53% of natural gas production had been shut in. Refineries in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and New Orleans in Louisiana had reduced run rates or taken units offline ahead of the storm.