09 September 2012, Sweetcrude, HOUSTON – OPERATIONS have returned at the offshore US Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Isaac made its way across the region.
As at Friday, operators in the area have largely finished re-staffing platforms and drilling rigs that were left idle as Hurricane Isaac approached.
Only six platforms in the Gulf, or about 1% of the total, and just one drilling rig remained evacuated, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, BSEE, said in a report on Friday.
But according to BSEE, the return to operations dropped the amount of oil and gas production shut in as a result of the storm down to 501,683 barrels per day of oil, or 36.35% of Gulf production, and 847.27 million cubic feet per day of gas, or 19.43% of production.
Australia’s BHP Billiton said it has completely re-staffed the Neptune and Shenzi platforms. Both have returned to full production.
UK supermajor BP said its Atlantis and Mad Dog platforms have also resumed production.
Murphy Oil said its Thunder Hawk, Medusa and Frontrunner fields were all up and running. Marathon Oil also reported a return to pre-storm production levels.
