U.S. says 71.5 percent oil output shut in Gulf due to Isaac

Date: 03-Sep-12
Country: USA
Author: Erwin Seba

U.S. regulators said 71.5 percent of daily oil production and 55.62 percent of daily natural gas output in U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico remained shut on Sunday due to Hurricane Isaac, whose remnants were drenching sections of the Midwest.

The amount of shut oil output was down 22 percent from Saturday's 93.53 percent and natural gas output was down nearly 10 percent from 65.26 percent shut a day earlier.

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said 986,698 barrels per day of oil was still shut, down from 1.291 million bpd on Saturday, and 2.502 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day in natural gas output was closed, down from 2.937 bcf per day on Saturday.

Those figures are expected to fall in the coming days.

Isaac came ashore as a hurricane on Tuesday night, but its slow movement in the following days across Louisiana delayed the restart of production.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba, editing by Gary Crosse)