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Lloyds List: Energy sector counts toll of Katrina and Rita carnage: “UP to 108 oil and gas platforms were destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, plus 53 platforms were significantly damaged, said US Interior Secretary Gale Norton.”: “Ms Norton does not take into account the serious damage to Shell's Mars TLP, where the derrick collapsed.”: Thursday 6 October 2005

 

Norton reveals three quarters of platforms in Gulf of Mexico were in path of Katrina or Rita, writes Martyn Wingrove

Oct 06, 2005

 

UP to 108 oil and gas platforms were destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, plus 53 platforms were significantly damaged, said US Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

 

Fortunately the industry suffered no loss of life or major oil spills from the two storms that crashed through the US's most important hydrocarbon producing region in September.

 

Of the 4,000 platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico, around 3,050 were in the path of at least one of the two hurricanes with the oldest platforms suffering the most damage.

 

The Minerals Management Service, part of the Department of Interior said 108 platforms, all of them known as 'end of life' facilities were destroyed and 53 suffered significant damage.

 

These platforms, built prior to 1988, account for 1.7% of the region's 1.5m barrels per day of oil production and 1% of its natural gas output.

 

'Those offshore facilities that withstood the storms best were those constructed to the 1988 MMS upgraded design standards,' Ms Norton said.

 

'Of all of the facilities constructed after the 1988 upgraded standards, only one platform was significantly damaged.

 

'We are currently working to determine whether the damage was a result of the storm or whether another facility collided with it.'

 

She was talking about Chevron's Typhoon tension-leg platform, which was found floating upside down after Rita, and some have suggested it was hit by a free-floating drilling rig.

 

But in her statement, Ms Norton does not take into account the serious damage to Shell's Mars TLP, where the derrick collapsed.

 

According to the latest MMS figures, 342 platforms and 17 rigs remain evacuated and a vast volume of the region's hydrocarbon production is shut-in.

 

The MMS said production of 1.3m barrels of oil and 10bn cu ft of gas per day were closed down up until Tuesday night.

 

Cumulative oil production closures since August 26 due to Katrina and Rita is heading towards 50m barrels and 10% of the region's annual output.

 

A major concern of the MMS is the number of mobile drilling rigs that break their moorings or are detached from their legs to end up grounded or floating uncontrolled around the region.

 

Ms Norton said 19 rigs were torn from their moorings by the two hurricanes and has called for a conference on November 17 to address this issue.

 

Gulf of Mexico operators are beginning to bring their production back on-stream.

 

Shell said it was ramping up production at the Brutus TLP, Bullwinkle platform, plus the Glider, Enchilada, Popeye, Fairway and North Padre Island fields, but a rupture to the gas line from the Auger deepwater platform will keep this TLP closed down for weeks.

 

US independent Anadarko said it had brought all its production back on-stream including the Marco Polo and K2 deepwater oil fields.

 

But the Houston-based firm said damage to rigs Noble Paul Romano and GlobalSantaFe's Celtic Sea, working on the K2 field means this development is behind schedule and full year production will be down 2.2m barrels this year and 2m barrels in 2006.

 

Apache Corp said it had started one third of its oil and half of its gas production, but lost one platform during Rita.

 

- Mexican state oil firm Pemex had to evacuate staff and close down production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico off Veracruz due to Hurricane Stan that crashed into Latin America this week. Workers are expected to return to work by the weekend.

 

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