5% of US Gulf Oil Output Still Shut After Harvey

About 5.5% of the US Gulf of Mexico’s oil production, or 96,000 barrels of daily output, remained shut on Sunday after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas more than a week ago, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.

The total lost oil production in the Gulf of Mexico since offshore platforms started shutting on Aug. 23 is about 2.97 million barrels. Affected output is down significantly from the peak of 24.5%, or 428,568 bpd, on Aug. 26 as evacuated workers returned and activity resumed, Reuters reported.

Energy companies operating in the offshore Gulf of Mexico produce about 1.75 million bpd of oil.

“Since the storm has passed, operators have begun inspecting facilities and resuming production. To date, no damage reports have been received,” BSEE said in a press release. Personnel remain evacuated from 30 offshore platforms, it said.

The federal agency also estimated that 8.4% of the natural gas production of 3,220 million cubic feet per day remain shut in, equivalent to 271.39 million cubic feet per day halted. The total production affected since Aug. 23 has been 6.35 billion cubic feet.

But the US Gulf Coast moved closer to recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Monday when the biggest American fuel system restarts a key segment shut down by devastating rains and officials weigh how to pay for billions of dollars in damage.

The move by Colonial Pipeline to resume transporting distillates such as diesel fuel comes as the region’s energy industry starts to come back on stream.

Colonial said it expected to reopen a Texas section of its network from Houston to Hebert, Texas, on Monday, which is the Labor Day holiday. The line would be ready to start moving gasoline on Tuesday, it said.

The pipelines’ reopening will restore links between refineries along the Gulf Coast, the US petrochemical hub, to markets in the Northeast.

Another fuel system, Explorer Pipeline, said a link running from Texas to Oklahoma restarted on Sunday, with a second pipeline from Oklahoma into the Midwest expected to resume on Monday.