-- About 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and natural gas
production will be restored by mid- to late October after being
shut-in by Hurricane Katrina, Johnnie Burton, director of the US
Minerals Management Service, said on Sep 16. That compares to a
forecast made the week of Sep 5 by the department that 90% of USG
output would be restored by the end of September. Burton cited the
difficulty in making assessments offshore as the reason for the
revision.
-- Burton also said that 35% of the oil shut-ins are due to
damage to onshore infrastructure such as pipelines, terminals and
refineries. For gas, 34.11% of the shut-ins are due to onshore
problems.
-- MMS said on Sep 16 if there are requests to use tankers to
shuttle crude to shore in order to bypass downed pipelines, the
agency could make a decision in two or three days. And while the
agency has not yet received any requests to flare offshore gas that
can be produced but not brought to market, MMS does expect to
receive some, which will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, it
said.
-- Strong liquidity levels and "robust" crude and natural gas
prices should "insulate the credit quality of US oil and gas
companies with substantial exposure to the US Gulf of Mexico and the
Gulf Coast regions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," Standard
& Poor's said Friday.
-- There were 2.8-mil bbl of Mars Blend crude sitting in the Mars
storage cavern at Clovelly, Louisiana, as of Thursday, down from
4.3-mil bbl just before Hurricane Katrina hit Aug 29, according to a
statement from Shell. Most platforms and satellite fields in the US
Gulf of Mexico associated with Mars Blend production remain offline
well over two weeks after the passage of Katrina. This has raised
questions on how sellers/producers are meeting their commitments and
what is available in storage.
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