US: 21.39% Oil, 13.7% Gas Output In Gulf Shut In Due To Alex

1st Jul 2010 19:31

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--About 21.39% of oil production and about 13.7% of natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut in due to Hurricane Alex, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Thursday. Estimated energy production from the Gulf of Mexico as of March was 1.6 million barrels of oil a day and 6.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, the bureau said in a press release. Production has increased from Wednesday, when about 26.33% of oil and 14.36% of gas output was shut in. Companies like Apache Corp. (APA), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSA.LN) and BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) were restoring shut-in production Wednesday. The bureau said personnel from a total of 69 production platforms, equivalent to 10.88% of the 634 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, were evacuated because of the threat of Alex. After making landfall in northeastern Mexico on Wednesday night, Alex was downgraded to a tropical storm. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is the new name for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service. The bureau said personnel from six rigs also have been evacuated, or the equivalent of 11.76% of the 51 rigs currently operating in the gulf. Neither the drilling rigs nor the containment vessels involved in the BP oil-spill response have been required to evacuate or halt operations, according to the press release. -By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 01, 2010 14:31 ET (18:31 GMT)