The first full report on pipelines and processing plants by the Department of Energy Tuesday showed that 21 gas processing plants in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi remain shuttered either for lack of power, gas supplies or damage to the facilities themselves. DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) also reported that 23 pipelines were damaged during Hurricane Rita and 21 during Hurricane Katrina.

This compared with 102 pipelines damaged during Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. Ten of the recently damaged plants with a total capacity of 5.4 Bcf/d lack power or gas supplies, and 11 of the plants with capacity of 7.7 Bcf/d are inactive because of damages, OE reported.

While DOE was adding up the damaged processing plants and pipelines, across town the Department of Interior was reporting on lost platforms and production. A total of 109 platforms were lost, but 108 were old and nearing the end of their productive life. Meanwhile, natural gas shut in in the Gulf of Mexico decreased slightly Tuesday to 72% of average production, or about 3% more gas output than a day earlier (see separate report).

In the meantime, energy companies continued reporting on facilities damage and expected quarterly production losses.

Shell Oil Co. said post-Rita underwater damage surveys discovered that its Auger 12-inch gas export line was damaged at two locations on the ocean floor. The current estimate for pipeline repairs is four to six weeks, weather permitting. The Auger structure was not damaged by Rita and topsides damage is minimal, the company said. Auger will be ready to ramp up once the pipeline repairs are made.

Post-Katrina, Shell’s current net production — operated and outside-operated fields — is 160,000 boe/d, a huge drop from the 450,000 boe/d it averaged in the first six months of 2005. This week, production at the Shell-operated Brutus, Glider, Bullwinkle, Enchilada, Popeye, Fairway and North Padre Island fields is flowing and ramping up to pre-hurricane rates. Over the next few weeks, Salsa and Cougar will ramp up, along with partial production at Ram Powell and Main Pass 252.

Enbridge reported Tuesday that it expects total gas flows on its five offshore Gulf of Mexico pipeline corridors to come close to pre-Katrina levels of 2.7 Bcf/d by the end of the year. The lines were flowing only about 600 MMcf/d Tuesday (200 MMcf/d of which is from storage on Destin). One hold-up is Shell’s Mars platform, which sustained extensive damage. Enbridge’s Doug Krenz told analysts he believes that Mars, which is connected to the Mississippi Canyon pipeline, will be down until sometime in the second half of next year. Mars was producing 150-170 MMcf/d of gas and 150,000 bbl/d of oil prior to Katrina (see separate story).

Producers’ damage assessments indicate that many expect to see output losses in their 3Q2005 reports, including BP plc, which said the two storms will cut into quarterly profit by more than $700 million and lower 2005 oil and natural gas production forecasts.

BP said together, Katrina and Rita cost the company 145,000 boe, and the storms will reduce average 3Q production by about 80,000 boe/d. The impact of higher prices on production sharing contracts will reduce output by a further 50,000 boe/d.

“The trading conditions experienced by BP in the third quarter of 2005 were significantly impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and their aftermath,” said BP in a statement. “These effects include profits foregone due to lost oil and gas production from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where BP is a leading producer, as well as reduced refinery runs at BP’s Texas City refinery and reduced marketing margins as a result of the sharp rise in wholesale petroleum product prices following disruption to the U.S. refining system.

“Additional costs were incurred due to facilities damage, clean-up and repairs. Although it is not yet possible to exactly quantify these impacts, BP currently estimates that the impact of these factors on third quarter replacement cost profit before interest and tax will be in excess of $700 million.”

BP measures earnings through a method that measures replacement cost profit before interest and taxes, stripping out the impact of inventory gains and losses. The London-based major’s replacement cost profit was already facing a $700 million charge following an explosion at its Texas City, TX refinery earlier this year.

About $100 million in costs were booked in the third quarter to repair and secure the Thunder Horse deepwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which was damaged not only by Katrina and Rita, but also Hurricane Dennis last July. Ramp-up of Thunder Horse, which was expected in the fourth quarter, has been postponed to sometime in 2006.

Excluding volumes from its TNK-BP operations, total worldwide production in 3Q is expected to be around 2.8 million boe/d. After adjustments, BP still expects its average production for the year to be in line with the range of 4.1-4.2 million boe/d, which it forecast in February 2005.

Apache Corp., based in Houston, said about half of its gross operated gas production and one-third of its gross oil production on and offshore are back onstream. However, there was damage.

“Hurricane Rita caused significantly less damage to Apache facilities than Katrina,” said Apache CEO G. Steven Farris. “We lost one structure at Ship Shoal 193 B. Restoring the bulk of our Gulf of Mexico volumes currently affected by Rita is largely dependent upon the timing of repairs to third-party pipelines and facilities damaged by the storm.”

Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co. has restored 35 MMcfe/d offshore, but it said it still has 90 MMcfe/d shut in from the storms. Of total remaining shut-in volumes, 65 MMcfe/d is from the Gulf and 25 MMcfe/d is from wells located along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Incorporating the impact of Rita and continuing consequences from Katrina, Cimarex now estimates 3Q2005 production volumes to average between 435-450 MMcfe/d. “The timetable to restore full production is uncertain and will largely depend on the startup of refineries, gas processing plants, platforms, facilities and pipelines owned and operated by others,” it said.

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