Shell restores production at Perdido after Tropical Storm Nicholas

Shell said it has restored production at its 100,000 b/d of oil equivalent Perdido platform late Sept. 16 in the Western Gulf of Mexico after it was temporarily shut in because of Tropical Storm Nicholas' heavy winds.

Because of its track hugging the Texas coastline, Nicholas did not cause much Gulf production to come offline -- unlike Hurricane Ida in late August -- but Perdido's position in the westernmost deepwater Gulf made it more exposed to Nicholas.

Shell had been waiting for downstream facilities that lost electricity to come back online before restoring production to Perdido. Williams Cos. said late Sept. 15 that its pipeline and processing facilities were ready to receive natural gas from the Perdido platform. Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith confirmed Perdido is now restarted.

About 28% of US Gulf of Mexico crude production remained offline Sept. 16 in the aftermath of Ida and Nicholas as the offshore energy sector continued to move slowly toward a return to normalcy with another two months left of the Atlantic storm season.

After 95% of US Gulf oil and gas production was shut in near the end of August as Category 4 Ida made a Louisiana landfall, 513,878 b/d of crude, or 28.2%, remained offline Sept. 16, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

The return of natural gas supplies continued to lag a bit more than oil. An estimated 878.6 Mcf/d, or 39.4%, of natural gas production was still shut in, BSEE said, which was roughly the same as the day prior.

Only 42, or 7.5%, of the platforms in the Gulf remained evacuated, BSEE said.

Apart from its westernmost Perdido platform, Shell said its Appomattox, Enchilada/Salsa and Auger assets continued to ramp up production following Ida. As of Sept. 15, Shell's Mars, Ursa and Olympus assets remained shut in. Shell said damage assessments continued at its West Delta-143 offshore facility, which serves as a transportation hub to onshore facilities.

Chevron said Sept. 16 it had redeployed essential personnel to all of its Chevron-operated facilities and restored full production at its Blind Faith asset and partial production at the Jack St. Malo, Big Foot and Tahiti platforms. Chevron said the Petronius facility also was preparing to resume production.