Preliminary damage assessments from Hurricane Ivan continued to grow on Tuesday, while it also became apparent that some shut-in Gulf of Mexico production could remain off the market for an extended period.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Tuesday that as of 11:30 a.m. CDT 16 companies were reporting that 35 platforms and one rig were still evacuated. That’s three more platforms than were reported shut in on Monday. A total of 666,000 bbl/d of oil and 2.8 Bcf/d of gas, or about 23% of total Gulf of Mexico gas production, was still shut in.

Although it appears that oil shut-ins are declining, gas shut-ins remained the same compared to Monday’s level of 2.8 Bcf/d. As of mid-day Tuesday cumulative shut-in production since Sept. 13 totaled 36.12 Bcf of gas and 8.5 million bbl of oil, MMS said.

In a separate damage assessment Tuesday afternoon, the MMS reported that now seven fixed platforms have been destroyed, three more than were reported on Monday. Two spars were reported to have extensive damage rather than the one reported Monday. In addition, four more platforms were reported to have extensive damage, and 10 additional pipeline leaks were reported for a total of 13 pipeline leaks.

“The companies are still having a difficult time getting out there to assess the damage because of bad weather in the Gulf. There are 30 mph winds and high seas currently,” said MMS spokeswoman Caryl Fagot. “It’s hard to fly and hard to get the boats out. And even though New Orleans was spared, the Louisiana coastline was hit hard and a there’s a lot of water in low-lying areas, which is affecting travel offshore. They may be having trouble staging what they need to do to assess damage.

“I think the reports are going to still be coming in piecemeal, so I think we have to continue saying these are preliminary damage reports and we will be adding information everyday.”

Meanwhile, El Paso Corp. on Tuesday said producers still had about 270 MMcf/d of gas shut in upstream of its Tennessee Gas pipeline system because of damage caused by Ivan. Peak shut-ins upstream of Tennessee had totaled 800 MMcf/d.

Tennessee currently is making repairs to its Bluewater pipeline system. Leaks were found in the 26-inch and 36-inch diameter lines on the east leg of the system. The company has not determined when those lines will be restored to service

About 40 meter receipt points upstream of the Southern Natural pipeline system remain shut in and under force majeure. About 30 receipt points previously shut in have returned to service and are flowing about 265 MMcf/d. Prior to the storm, the 70 meter points were flowing about 850 MMcf/d.

Williams said late Monday that throughput on its Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line system returned to near normal levels following more than 1 Bcf/d of supply cuts last week due to Hurricane Ivan. On Friday, producers had still about 500 MMcf/d shut in. The Gulfstream Natural Gas pipeline system has had a more difficult time getting back to normal throughput levels. About 600 MMcf/d remains shut in.

Due to Hurricane Ivan impacts, Texas Eastern is not accepting nominations from any meters on the South Pass system and Line 40-G or from the Venice Gathering System (VGS) until there is verification that the VGS processing plant has resumed operations. “Current estimates from VGS state the plant could return to service later this week,” the pipeline said Tuesday. Ten affected meters were listed. For nonlisted meters, Texas Eastern said it “will accept nominations as point operators verify return to normal operations and flows.”

Destin Pipeline said that because of Hurricane Ivan, all offshore production on its system was shut in Monday afternoon, but it continued to receive gas from onshore interconnects with Petal Gas Storage and Chandeleur Pipeline. According to its evaluation of storm damage, “the current estimate is that the offshore portion of the Destin system will not be available until at least Friday.” The pipeline added that producers should notify it as soon as they are ready to restart deliveries.

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