Houston — U.S. oil offshore losses remained at 76% on Thursday after Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data, which prolonged outages and caused the first oil cargo shipment cancellations to buyers in Asia.
Production should be disrupted by at least another week amid lasting damages to transfer stations and offshore facilities, analysts said, with impact to oil prices.
“It seems to be at least more than a week away until most of the shut-in Gulf of Mexico production is restored,” said Nishant Bhushan, oil markets analyst with Rystad Energy consultancy firm.
Some 1.39 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production and over 1.72 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas output were shut-in. More than 71 platforms of the 288 evacuated ahead of the August storm remain unoccupied, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, on Thursday declared force majeure on oil deliveries due to damage from Hurricane Ida as 80% of its local production remains off.
Damage assessments continue at its West Delta-143 (WD-143) offshore facility, which serves as the transfer station for all production from Shell’s assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the U.S. Gulf to onshore crude terminals.
“The pipeline should be intact, but now with reduced throughput,” Rystad analyst Colin White said.
Losss makes this hurricane season one of the most costly since back-to-back storms in 2005 cut output for months, according to the latest data and historical records.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has revised down U.S. oil production forecast by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 11.7 million bpd.
Noble Corp. on Thursday said its Globetrotter II drill ship, which was damaged when the hurricane hit, is now onshore undergoing repairs and further inspections.
- Reuters (Reporting by Sabrina Valle Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)
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