SALON

Monday, Sep 3, 2012 9:45 PM UTC

Oil and gas production ramping up after Isaac

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Oil and gas production ramping up after IsaacIn this Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, photo, cattle are stranded on a slim piece of dry land as floodwaters from Hurricane Isaac recede in Plaquemines Parish, La. The nation’s oil and gas hub is slowly coming back to life in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac. The government said Monday that offshore oil and gas platforms are beginning to ramp up production as crews are returning. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)(Credit: AP)

The nation’s oil and gas hub along the Gulf Coast is slowly coming back to life in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac.

Offshore oil platforms are beginning to ramp up production as crews are returning. Refineries are beginning to restart units as power is restored and floodwaters are cleared out.

While a substantial amount of oil and gas production remains off line, production is coming back as expected. No major damage to oil platforms or refineries have been reported, and no further storm-related spikes in energy prices are expected.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Monday that 800,000 barrels per day of oil production remained offline, 58 percent of Gulf of Mexico production. About 100,000 barrels per day of production was restored between Sunday and Monday.

At the height of the storm 1.3 million barrels per day of oil production was suspended. The U.S. consumes an average of 19 million barrels of petroleum every day.

Companies have been quickly returning workers to platforms. About 12 percent of the region’s platforms were still without staff. Nearly all of the Gulf’s offshore platforms and rigs were evacuated last week.

Nine refineries in the path of Isaac are restarting or operating at reduced rates, according to the Energy Department. One refinery has returned to full operation and one, the Belle Chasse, La., refinery operated by Phillips 66, is still shut down because it is still without power.

The company said Sunday most of the floodwater had been cleared from the refinery and most refinery personnel had returned to work to prepare the plant for re-start when power was restored. On Monday, the company said there was no update to the refinery’s status.

The national average price of gasoline rose 11 cents last week as Isaac threatened the Gulf Coast and then swept ashore with high winds and flooding rains. But by Friday the price had leveled off to just under $3.83 per gallon. Monday, the average price declined — barely — by 0.2 cents, to $3.827 per gallon, according to the Oil Price Information Service, AAA and Wright Express.

That’s the highest ever price for gasoline for Labor Day, though it is 11 cents below this year’s high of $3.94 per gallon, set April 6.

Analysts say that gasoline prices should drift lower in the coming weeks as Gulf coast refineries ramp back up, the summer driving season ends and refiners switch to cheaper winter blends of gasoline.

Refineries in the path of the storm shut down or began operating at lower rates to protect their operations, depriving the market of millions of gallons of gasoline and sending prices higher. Refiners consume enormous amounts of electricity and they generate steam to cook crude oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. If the process is interrupted suddenly by a loss in power or steam, fluids can get trapped in equipment and re-starting the refinery can take many weeks. Instead, operators often choose to slow or shut refineries before a storm hits so they can restart as soon as power is restored.

Onshore pipelines, ports and terminals have re-opened, though some are still operating with restrictions, the Energy Department said. Some sections of Shell’s offshore pipeline network have restarted, and others are expected to restart in the next few days.

Several natural gas pipelines remain shut, along with natural gas processing plants that depend on gas from the pipelines. The Energy Department reported that most operators anticipate gas flows resuming over the next few days.

___

Follow Jonathan Fahey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey.

More Jonathan Fahey.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations