With 54 producers reporting, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Friday that shut-in natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico now totals 3.384 Bcf/d, down from 3.411 Bcf/d reported a day earlier. The shut-in gas is equivalent to 33.84% of the daily gas production in the Gulf, currently 10 Bcf/d.

The cumulative shut-in gas production since Aug. 26 now stands at 105.777 Bcf, about 2.898% of the yearly production of gas, which is currently 3.65 Tcf.

Meanwhile, new figures from onshore Louisiana showed some production back on, some still shut in and a large amount not reported. The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation said restored gas production in the eight parishes surveyed as of Thursday was 354 MMcf/d, or 14.3% of the daily gas output capacity in the parish region, which is currently 2.482 Bcf/d. Total shut-in gas was 359 MMcf/d, or 14.5%, while about 71.2%, or 1.769 Bcf/d had not been reported.

The department said about 21.5%, or 568, of the 2,641 oil and natural gas wells located in an eight-parish region of Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina have been restored to production. In addition, 1,176 wells, or 44.5% of the wells, reportedly remain shut-in, while the status of 897 wells, or 34%, is unknown.

To assess the effects of Katrina on onshore production, the Office of Conservation identified and surveyed 149 operators with producing wells in an eight-parish region, including Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Terrebonne and Washington. Louisiana has jurisdiction over oil and gas properties and rights out to three miles.

Restored oil production in Louisiana was 21,830 bbl/d, about 9.6% of the parishes’ daily capacity, which currently is 228,253 bbl/d. Shut-in oil production as of Thursday was 72,219 bbl/d, or 31.6% of the daily oil production capacity. The status of the remaining production capacity of 134,204 bbl/d, 58.8%, was unknown.

Shut-in oil production in federal waters as of Friday was 840,921 bbl/d, or about 56.06% of daily Gulf output, 1.5 million bbl/d. About 35% of the shut-in oil is the result of onshore infrastructure problems, MMS said. The cumulative shut-in oil production since Aug. 26 is 22.215 million, or 4.058 % of the yearly production of 547.5 million bbl.

About 10.26% of 819 manned platforms and 1.49% of 134 rigs currently operating in the federal offshore Gulf remain evacuated, MMS said.

“We’ve reached a plateau” with respect to oil and natural gas production returning to service in the Gulf of Mexico, said Johnnie Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), at a press briefing Friday (see related story). Immediately after Hurricane Katrina passed, a number of platforms that were not directly in the path of the storm came back online, which caused a sharp drop in the shut-in production numbers. But now “you’re down to the area that really was hit” during the hurricane-force winds, she noted.

“We’ll probably have a little surge for [the] small, minor damage that will probably take only a few days to fix…and then you’ll have another plateau for the real damage that will take much longer to correct,” she told reporters. Burton identified Shell’s Mars platform, which she called a “big producer,” as one that will likely be out for some time. It was “hit pretty hard and will take a while to fix it.”

She noted that one Gulf of Mexico platform recorded winds of 175-190 miles per hour during Katrina, with peaks of 200-220 mph during a sustained period of six to seven hours.

Shell Exploration and Production, the largest operator in the Gulf, said Thursday underwater damage assessments at Mars, Ursa, Cognac and West Delta 143, the four Shell facilities not capable of operating, have been completed and there is no damage to underwater facilities (i.e. risers, tendons, subsea equipment, etc). The damage appears to be limited to topsides equipment at the facilities.

Shell said its net production rates in the Gulf of Mexico were the same as it reported the previous day with approximately 160,000 boe/d, one-third of which is natural gas (300 MMcf/d), being produced out of its pre-Katrina production total of 450,000 boe/d. The company has said it expects 60% of total production will be restored to pre-hurricane levels within fourth quarter 2005.

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