The deepwater Independence Hub platform, the largest natural gas production hub in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), ramped up gas flow to more than 700 MMcf/d late Monday, a positive sign of an eventual return to normal operations for the devastated Gulf Coast. However, at least three offshore gas pipelines were damaged and 28 of the 3,800 offshore oil and gas platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf in the GOM were destroyed by Hurricane Ike.

The destroyed platforms, all located off the coast of Louisiana, were built in the 1970s and 1980s, said Lars Herbst, regional director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) GOM region. The platforms were not built to current MMS standards, and they were all small producers, he said during a press conference Tuesday. The destroyed platforms sliced 82 MMcf/d of gas and 11,000 b/d of oil from domestic production for an indeterminate amount of time.

Three jack-up drilling rigs also were destroyed, and one jack-up drilling rig suffered extensive damage. Separately, two drilling rigs that had been reported drifting on Saturday were secured by tugs. Herbst cautioned that his agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and the energy industry still may find more damage because some areas have not yet been assessed.

“We expect additional reports of damage as the weather allows more flights and operators are able to board the platforms and begin inspections,” he said. The damage found to date was off the Louisiana coast, from Grand Isle to West Cameron. Inspections of the area near Galveston, TX, where the storm made landfall, has been hampered because the city was declared a no-fly zone by the Department of Homeland Security, Herbst noted.

MMS would not provide details about which gas pipelines were damaged, but Herbst said they may take more than a week to repair. Some of the options being considered if the damage is found to be extensive is rerouting the gas to other pipelines or flaring the output, he said.

“It’s too early to tell what caused the damage” to the pipelines, Herbst said. “We suspect it was not mudslide because they were not in a mudslide-prone area where the damage occurred…As for anchors, we are aware of two drilling rigs that did lose their station-keeping…Other than that, we will have to see what else may have impacted the pipelines. A toppled structure, that in itself could be the pipeline problem.”

Offshore crews were being returned to energy infrastructure along the coast and in the GOM Tuesday as recovery began following Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in the pre-dawn hours Saturday. Millions of people in Texas and Louisiana still had no electricity or water services, but energy companies were slowly returning to the task of restarting their facilities. The lack of power, littered roadways and flooding hindered assessments, and complete reports were not expected by some operators before the end of the week.

Initial reports have not indicated offshore damage as extensive as that found following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Herbst noted. Katrina destroyed 44 offshore platforms, and Rita destroyed 64. Since then the MMS has upgraded its standards for offshore infrastructure.

Ike, said Herbst, was “similar in some ways” to Katrina and Rita and “different in other ways.” Ike was a Category Two storm; Katrina and Rita initially crossed into the GOM energy region as Category Five storms and were downgraded to Category Four storms as they moved through.

“That’s not to say that we didn’t see a lot of damage in this storm. If you just base it on the number of platforms, the impact of this storm was more to shelf facilities and Katrina had some deepwater impacts…It does not seem like the impact to production will be as long term as Katrina’s.”

Based on data from 84 offshore operators by midday Tuesday, the MMS estimated that 84.2% of the GOM’s gas production remained shut in; estimated output before Hurricane Gustav struck the region early this month was 7.4 Bcf/d. MMS also estimated that nearly all — 97.2% — of the oil production remains shut in; production pre-Gustav was 1.3 million b/d. There were still 498, or 69.5%, of the 717 total manned platforms still evacuated Tuesday. And 71 rigs, or 58.7% of the 121 rigs now operating offshore, were still unmanned.

“Damage assessments by natural gas pipeline operators are well under way,” the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability stated Tuesday. “Points that were in the path of Hurricane Ike are for the most part reporting flood damage and lack of power. Some facilities still have standing water and it will likely take several weeks for repairs and clean-up in order to restart these facilities. If the standing water is sea water, then expect even longer delays in restarting.”

Reports of damage to offshore gas facilities, including pipeline breaches on several main and gathering lines, have been reported, but “it is too early to generate a detailed damage repair schedule,” said DOE. The repairs “should not take more than a few weeks to complete, weather permitting.”

Sabine Pipe Line LLC, the operator of the Henry Hub trading point, said it was rescinding its force majeure at some receipt points and would accept nominations for intraday gas flows beginning at 5 p.m. CDT Tuesday (see related story). Enbridge Offshore pipeline systems remained under force majeure and were to remain shut in until operational personnel gain access to facilities and conduct more thorough inspections. Also, Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) reported that all points upstream of the Grand Chenier and Sabine processing plants remain shut in. Crosstex informed TGP that the Sabine plant experienced storm surge, and assessments are under way; the Bluewater plant is ready to process once upstream flow begins. Targa Resources, partial owner and operator of the Yscloskey gas processing plant in St. Bernard Parish, LA, said the plant experienced water damage; it has been shut in since Hurricane Gustav.

Thirty-nine major gas processing plants, with a total operating capacity of 17.6 Bcf/d, were in the path of Hurricane Ike, according to DOE. At midday Tuesday the Energy Information Administration confirmed that 23 gas processors remained shut down, including plants still impacted from Gustav earlier this month. The 23 processors have a total operating capacity of 11.29 Bcf/d — almost 65% of the capacity in Ike’s path. Thirteen of the 23 shut-in plants are in Louisiana. Another 10 plants with 4.26 Bcf/d of capacity had resumed operations as of Tuesday, and five plants were “capable to restart,” with a total of 1.9 Bcf/d of capacity. Those capable of restarting were waiting for power to be restored or upstream gas flow to begin.

MMS could not provide company names of the platforms destroyed or damaged, but offshore operators were beginning to provide information about the platform damage on Tuesday.

The drilling derrick that sits atop BP plc’s Mad Dog platform “was toppled and is on the sea bed,” the company stated. The platform has the capacity to produce up to 100,000 b/d of oil and 60 MMcf/d of gas. BP is restaffing its GOM platforms, including Thunder Horse, the largest offshore with capacity to produce 250,000 b/d of oil and 200 MMcf/d of gas. Flyovers and visual inspections showed minimal damage to most platforms, and BP expects to ramp up production over the next week, depending on availability of pipelines and other facilities to move supplies.

Chevron Corp. spokesman Mickey Driver said reconnaissance flights revealed that several platforms were toppled by Hurricane Ike. “We’re unable to say how many or which ones at this time,” said Driver. “It appears at the moment that they were in the shallower waters along the shelf.”

Marathon found some damage to the lower decks of its Ewing Bank Block 873 platform and is “diligently working to make repairs and return the platform to production as safely and quickly as feasible.” The platform serves as a hub for Ewing Bank 917 and Ewing Bank 963, with gross production averaging about 11,700 b/d of oil and about 10.5 MMcf/d of gas prior to the storm.

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