US Gulf of Mexico oil, gas output shut-ins remain; E&Ps assess storm damage

Houston — For a second consecutive day, barely any US Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production has been restored Aug. 28 as upstream operator crews carefully inspect their output hubs and installations for potential damages from Hurricane Laura, a federal agency said.

Fewer platforms remained evacuated, however – 257, down from 297 a day before, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in its midday update.

But production virtually remained the same as a day earlier – 1.559 million b/d of oil, or 84% of the US Gulf's total, as well as 1.628 Bcf/d of gas, or 60%, BSEE said.

That indicates crews have begun repopulating the facilities to inspect them and are doing that prior to restarting production, BSEE spokeswoman Karla Marshall said.

"Once the checks have been completed, production from undamaged facilities will be brought back online immediately," she said.

Shell to inspect Auger, Enchilada, Salsa

In addition, Shell said Aug. 28 its Auger, Enchilada and Salsa platforms may have been affected by Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm that made landfall early Aug. 27 and was said to be the most powerful that has ever hit Louisiana.

"Weather permitting, we expect to begin inspections today [Aug. 28] of potentially affected assets Auger, Enchilada and Salsa," Shell said in a statement. "Meanwhile, we are beginning to re-deploy personnel to all other assets that have not been impacted, including those in the Norphlet and Mars Corridors."

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

Shell also said its drilling operations are in the process of re-starting.

In addition, Shell said that although it had shut-in eight of its nine operated US Gulf of Mexico assets, it did not shut-in the ninth platform – the Perdido Hub in the southwestern Gulf – after all.

Shell had debated for a couple of days whether a shut-in was needed because although Perdido was at a distance from Hurricane Laura's storm track, meteorologists had not fully nailed down Laura's path until the day before it made landfall early Aug. 27.

In any case, Perdido remains "fully operational," Shell said.

No damage to BHP's Shenzi

Australia's BHP has also visited its Shenzi production facility and will remobilize to Neptune Aug. 28, company spokeswoman Judy Dane said.

"We can confirm no damage to Shenzi and expect the same for Neptune based on our remote monitoring," Dane said. "Our restart time is dependent on a few factors, including the state of our midstream operators, which we are working to understand."

Also, BP said its its overflights to production hubs in the US Gulf were to begin Aug. 28.

"Production will remain shut-in until we have confirmation that our platforms can 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.

Murphy Oil is also embarking on inspections of its offshore installations.

"After assessing facilities and FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessels), personnel are returning to production facilities and then will begin to restore production," company spokeswoman Kelly Whitley said.

In addition, Chevron said Aug. 27 it had begun to bring back crews and restore production at its operated US Gulf platforms.