Tropical storm Helene has led to a halt of about 24 percent of crude oil production and 18 percent of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, United States. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement recently reported that energy producers have suspended the production of 427,000 barrels of oil per day. Moreover, they halted the production of 343 million cubic feet of natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico.
The offshore regulatory body also stated that personnel from nine oil and gas platforms evacuated. That is about 2.4 percent of the total platforms in the region, according to reports from producers.
Federal data revealed that the U.S. Gulf of Mexico accounts for around 15 percent of total domestic oil production and 2 percent of natural gas production. The hurricane caused U.S. offshore oil and gas producers to lose 1.66 million barrels of oil and 1.23 billion cubic feet of gas due to shut-ins that began last Tuesday.
Chevron said on Friday it had already begun to redeploy personnel and restore production at company-operated platforms in the aftermath of the hurricane.
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On Sunday, the bureau reported that only 3 percent of crude oil and 1 percent of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remained shut down in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Currently, energy producers are left with 59,000 barrels per day of oil production and nearly 17 million cubic feet of natural gas output shut in from Gulf waters, the bureau added.
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