About 11% of oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was shut on Sept. 27 as a powerful Hurricane Ian forced oil companies to evacuate workers and the storm took aim at Florida.
The hurricane entered the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and is forecast to become a dangerous, Category 4 storm over the warm waters of the Gulf, according to National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecaster Eric Blake.
Ian weakened after crossing Cuba and was packing winds of 120 miles per hour (195 km per hour), the NHC said. It is heading toward making an extremely dangerous landfall in southwestern Florida, Blake predicted.
Some 190,000 bbl/d of oil production, or 11% of the Gulf's total were shut-in, according to offshore regulator the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). Producers lost 184 MMcf of natural gas or nearly 9% of daily output.
Personnel were evacuated from 14 production platforms and rigs, BSEE said.
It is the first hurricane this year to disrupt oil and gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which produces about 15% of the nation's crude oil and 5% of dry natural gas. Ian's course takes it east of the core of U.S. offshore oil and gas production.
"The storm is so massive, it's going to affect all of Florida," said Jim Foerster, a consulting meteorologist at data and analytics firm DTN. "This is going to be really, really bad."
Ian will be "very impactful, not only to the offshore operations, but certainly, there will be tens of thousands of people without power over land," Foerster added.
Tampa Electric said it will proactively cut off service to customers and warned that they should be prepared for "extended power outages."
Offshore producers Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and Hess on Sept. 26 said they had taken precautions ahead of the storm's arrival in the Gulf.
BP said it was working to redeploy offshore personnel to two offshore production platforms after determining Hurricane Ian no longer posed a significant threat to its Gulf Of Mexico assets. The oil major had on Sept. 26 evacuated personnel and halted output at Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms.
Chevron also removed staff from two platforms, while Occidental and Hess said they were implementing storm procedures without providing specifics.
Tankers and vessels cleared the eastern Gulf of Mexico region, Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking showed.
Recommended Reading
PakEnergy Plows Ahead with New SCADA Solution
2024-09-17 - After acquiring Plow Technologies, home of the OnPing SCADA platform, PakEnergy looks to enhance its remote monitoring solutions.
ChampionX Releases New Plunger Lift Well Solution
2024-09-13 - The SMARTEN Unify control system is the first plunger lift controller in ChampionX’s SMARTEN portfolio.
AI & Generative AI Now Standard in Oil & Gas Solutions
2024-07-25 - From predictive maintenance to production optimization, AI is ushering in a new era for oil and gas.
Give Us a Signal: Tech Firm Ups E&P Coverage in Remote Plays
2024-07-02 - As E&Ps struggle to transmit information over public networks in out-of-the-way oil and gas basins, tech firm Digi is working to improve its reception.
BP to Use Palantir Software to Improve AI in Operations
2024-09-09 - BP and Palantir have agreed to a five-year strategic relationship in which Palantir’s AIP software will use large language models to improve BP operations.
Comments
Add new comment
This conversation is moderated according to Hart Energy community rules. Please read the rules before joining the discussion. If you’re experiencing any technical problems, please contact our customer care team.