-- Hurricane Wilma was 160 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, at
2 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) on Oct 20, with maximum sustained winds of 145
mph, making it a powerful Category Four storm, the US National
Hurricane Center said. Wilma, which slowed overnight, is now
projected to make landfall in Florida on Oct 23.
-- The International Energy Agency on Oct 20 reiterated that its
26 member countries were ready to release more oil from emergency
stocks in case of hurricane-related supply disruptions in the US.
The agency's governing board also agreed to allow volumes of crude
oil and products from the IEA's original offer of 60-mil bbl not yet
taken up to remain available to the market.
-- All Mexico's oil and petrochemical ports were open to shipping
early Oct 20, the Ministry of Communications and Transportation
reported. Hurricane Wilma appeared likely to hit the resort area of
Cancun, but is currently expected to miss major oil installations, a
source from state oil company Pemex said.
-- Anadarko will begin evacuating all non-essential personnel
from its Gulf of Mexico operations early Oct 21 as a precautionary
measure ahead of Hurricane Wilma, a company spokeswoman said on Oct
20.
-- US contract driller Noble Corp on Oct 20 reported third
quarter net income of 55 cts/share, up from 23 cts/share a year ago,
mostly on higher rig utilization rates and stronger average
dayrates, but added that earnings were hit by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.
-- Total's 240,000 b/d Port Arthur, Texas refinery, closed ahead
of Hurricane Rita, should be at full rates "by the weekend," a
company spokesman told Platts.
-- The amount of onshore and shallow-water oil and natural gas
production in Louisiana sped up on Oct 20 as more wells were
accounted for, the Louisiana Dept of Natural resources said. With a
2% gain in the number of wells reported as producing, oil production
increased four percentage points to 62,803 b/d, or 31% of the
state's pre-storm total of 203,139 bbl/d. Natural gas production
increased five percentage points to 874,700 Mcf/d, or 39% of the
state's pre-storm production of 2.235 Bcf/d, the agency said.
-- The US Minerals Management Service, in its daily production
update in the wake of Katrina and Rita, said on Oct 20 oil shut-ins
were 967,734 b/d, or 64.52% of normal production of 1.5-mil b/d. On
Oct 19, shut-ins were 973,084 b/d, or 64.87% of normal. MMS also
said natural gas shut-ins as of Oct 20 stood at 5.196 Bcf/d, or
51.96% of norma output of 10 Bcf/d. A day earlier, shut-ins were
5.242 Bcf/d, or 52.42% of normal.
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