-- The Louisiana Dept of Natural Resources on Oct 10 said
operators of onshore and shallow-water wells in a 38-parish region
had restored 43,592 b/d of oil production, or about 21.5% of the
region's production of 203,139 b/d before hurricanes Katrina and
Rita struck the Gulf Coast. The agency also put restored natural gas
production at 608,500 Mcf/d, an amount equal to about 27.2% of the
region's pre-hurricane output of 2.235 Bcf/d. On Oct 7, DNR reported
restored oil production at 39,641 b/d, or 19.5% of the region's
pre-storm output and said 535,700 Mcf/d of natural gas production,
or 24% of pre-storm output had been restored.
-- Valero Energy has restarted three sulfur recovery units at its
250,000 b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, as the plant begins to
return from its shutdown and damage from Rita, a company filing with
state regulators showed on Oct 10. The restart would fit with the
company's previously disclosed projection that it would restart the
Port Arthur refinery within two to four weeks of Rita's passage.
Rita made landfall along the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast on Sep 24.
-- US independent Burlington Resources said its third quarter
production is expected to fall in the lower end of its previously
disclosed range of 2.8-3 Bcfe/d due to storm-related output
curtailments in the Gulf of Mexico. The company, in a statement,
said it has restored the majority of 180,000 Mcfe/d of Gulf
production that was shut in due to Hurricane Rita and is working to
return about 60,000 Mcfe/d that remains curtailed.
-- Noble Energy said its third quarter production is expected to
average 168,000 boe/d, up 58% from third-quarter 2004 but "below
expectations due to the impacts of hurricanes Katrina and Rita."
Noble said its current USG net production is now 10,000 boe/d, down
from the pre-hurricanes level of 26,000 boe/d. That production
represented about 16% of the company's net production at the end of
the second quarter.
-- Delta Petroleum on Oct 10 said that most of the wells that
were shut in as a result of Hurricane Rita have been returned to
production. Delta's operations are focused on the US Gulf Coast and
Rocky Mountain regions.
-- Sabine Pipe Line on Oct 10 lifted a force majeure at the Mayne
& Mertz/Calacasieu interconnect with its natural gas mainline in
western Louisiana. Sabine, which operates Henry Hub, late Friday
lifted force majeures effective Saturday for the Calcasieu
Power/Lake Charles, Dynegy Frac/Lake Charles, HPL/Jefferson,
MidCoast/Westlake and Multifuels/Lake Arthur interconnects with its
mainline. At the Henry Hub, which was flooded by Rita, the number of
restored pipeline interconnects remained at seven. Six other
interconnects at the hub remained under force majeure.
-- Entergy continued to restore power to customers over the
weekend, reducing the number without service from Rita to 46,320,
down from 766,000 at the peak of the storm. The New Orleans-based
utility still has 62 transmission lines and 11 substations out of
service. After the storm, which hit Entergy's western service
territory Sep 24, the company had 343 transmission lines and 436
substations out of service.
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