BP, Shell planning US Gulf of Mexico post-storm Laura damage assessments

Houston — BP and Shell were planning Aug. 28 to inspect their respective US Gulf of Mexico deepwater facilities that were shut-in earlier in the week in advance of two tropical storms racing through the region, the companies said.

"BP is preparing to return to its company-operated facilities in the [US Gulf] to inspect for any potential damage resulting from Hurricanes Marco and Laura and prepare to return to operations," the major said in a late Aug. 27 update. "Weather permitting, overflights will begin [Aug. 28] to survey our facilities."

"Production will remain shut-in until we have confirmation that our platforms are able to operate safely, pipeline companies have confirmed the operability of offshore pipelines and the shore-based transportation and receiving systems are working as necessary," BP said, adding it couldn't predict how long the process would take.

Shell also said late Aug. 27 that its drilling operations are in the process of re-starting.

Also, "inspections of all assets potentially affected by the storm will be conducted as soon as the weather permits, in order to determine when we will be ready to safely re-deploy personnel and resume operations," the company added.

Similar damage assessment by Chevron and Australia's BHP are also planned for Aug. 28.

Perdido now 'fully operational'

While eight of Shell's nine operated assets in the Gulf of Mexico that had been shut-in remained that way Aug. 27, Shell said, it didn't shut in its ninth platform, the Perdido Hub in the southwestern Gulf, after all. Perdido remains "fully operational," Shell said.

Shell had debated for a couple of days whether a shut-in of Perdido was necessary, since the platform was located at some distance from the storm track of Hurricane Laura. But meteorologists had not fully nailed down Laura's path until the day before the storm struck land early Aug. 27, and were concerned the storm could turn further west,. In that case, Shell believed that path might have brought the hurricane nearer to Perdido.

Hurricane Laura hit southwest Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 storm, the second-largest classification on the 5-level Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Marco had fizzled out a couple of days prior.

Little shut-in US Gulf production has been restored so far, although that may change Aug. 28 and over the weekend.

On Aug. 27, just two platforms of the 299 that had been shut-in before the storms had been returned to production. The 297 that were still temporarily shuttered that day represented 46% of all platforms in the US Gulf.

Otherwise, 1.559 million b/d of oil, about 84% of pre-storm volumes, and 1.628 Bcf/d, or 60%, remained shut-in Aug. 27, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

The agency should release its daily storm update at 1 p.m. CT Aug. 28.