-- ExxonMobil is in the process of restarting its 348,500 b/d
Beaumont, Texas, refinery, shut down last month before Hurricane
Rita. The company said it is expected to take around two weeks to
complete the restart of Beaumont.
-- Hurricane Wilma, the 12th hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic
season, has strengthened slightly but was still a Category One
hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center
said in its latest advisory at 2 p.m. EDT. NHC said the storm "is
expected to become a major hurricane during the next day or two."
-- Onshore and shallow-water oil and natural gas production in
Louisiana picked up slightly on Oct 18, the state's Department of
Natural Resources reported. DNR said estimated oil production
increased to 55,756 bbls/d, or 27.5% of the pre-storm production
level of 203,138 bbls/d. On Oct 18, the agency put restored oil
production at 25.5% of the pre-storm total. Gas production increased
by less than one-half of a percentage point over Oct 18, DNR said,
with the state's wells producing 765,000 Mcf/d, or 34.2% of normal
production of 2.235 Bcf/d.
-- The US Minerals Management Service said on Oct 18 in its daily
production update in the wake of Katrina and Rita, that oil shutins
were 982,011 b/d, or 65.47% of normal production of 1.5-mil b/d. On
Oct 17, oil shut-ins were 996,291 b/d, or 66.42% of normal. MMS also
said natural gas shut-ins as of Oct 18 stood at 5.346 Bcf/d, or
53.46% of normal output of 10 Bcf/d. On Oct 17, gas shut-ins were
5.498 Bcf/d, or 54.98% of normal. Cumulative oil production shut in
since Aug 26 ahead of Katrina is now 61,629,198 bbl, equivalent to
11.256% of yearly US Gulf output of roughly 547.5-mil bbl.
Cumulative gas shut-ins of 310.837 Bcf are equivalent to about
8.516% of yearly Gulf output of some 3.65 Tcf.
-- The US Department of Energy approved 13.2-mil bbl in crude
loans from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the aftermath of
Katrina, 6-mil bbl of which had been delivered as of Sep 28.
Separately, DOE also sold 11-mil bbl of SPR crude as part of the
International Energy Agency's 60-mil bbl stock release. The first
lot of that sale—500,000 bbl to Marathon—has been delivered, with
the balance of the crude to be delivered to buyers throughout
October.
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