Hurricane Isaias halts 1.28 million barrels of daily oil production in the US — OilPrice
In the United States, in the Gulf of Mexico, 1.28 million barrels of oil production per day were suspended because of Hurricane Isaias. This represents 62.89% of the region’s current oil production, OilPrice reports, citing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Evacuation from platforms
According to the agency, as of 11:00 a.m. US Central Time, operators had also suspended 57.35% of natural gas production in the Gulf. Personnel were evacuated from 121 production platforms, or 32.61% of the region’s 371 manned platforms.
In addition, five drilling rigs without dynamic positioning were evacuated. Another four of the 17 dynamically positioned rigs left their work sites.
The scale of shutdowns increased
Two days earlier, the storm had suspended production of 185,120 barrels of oil per day, or 9.24% of production in the region. At that time, there were no reports of platform or drilling rig evacuations, while the share of suspended gas production stood at 3.36%.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management noted that on Tuesday its survey was based on a report from one company, while on Thursday data were provided by 12 companies. Isaias strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday night and moved toward the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the forecast, the hurricane could have approached Category 3 before weakening ahead of its expected landfall early on Saturday. Parts of the Florida Peninsula and Alabama could have experienced a storm surge of up to seven feet and heavy rainfall, exceeding 10 inches in some areas.
Resumption of production
Undamaged offshore facilities will resume operations after standard inspections, the agency said. If platforms or other infrastructure sustain damage, some production will remain suspended for longer. The agency planned to release its next update on evacuations and production shutdowns on Friday afternoon.
