Reports from offshore oil and gas operators complied by the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement indicate that 18.94% of US Gulf of Mexico oil production, or 331,370 b/d, remains shut in as of midday Aug. 28 following evacuations necessitated by Tropical Storm and Hurricane Harvey.
That level is down from 21.64% at midday Aug. 27 and an event peak of around a quarter of total US gulf output on Aug. 26. Prior to the storm, government agencies had total US gulf production at around 1.75 million b/d.
BSEE also estimates 18.12% of US gulf natural gas production, or 583.39 MMcfd, remains shut in. As of midday Aug. 27, 25.71% of gas output was shut.
Personnel are evacuated from 98 production platforms, 13.3% of the 737 manned platforms in the US gulf.
Personnel also remain evacuated from five nondynamically positioned rigs, representing half of those kinds of rigs that were operating in the gulf prior to the storm. One dynamically positioned rig has moved back on location, bringing that total back to the pre-storm level of 21.
In the Eagle Ford shale onshore South Texas, ConocoPhillips idled five rigs and suspended all production ahead of the storm making landfall, according to an Aug. 25 Reuters report.
BHP Billiton Ltd. said on Aug. 25 that it had halted drilling and completion activities in the Eagle Ford, while other operators such as Marathon Oil Corp., EOG Resources Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co., and Statoil ASA also reported reduced activity in the region.
The US Energy Information Administration had estimated Eagle Ford production in August at 1.379 million b/d in its Monthly Drilling Productivity Report.
