Approximately 47.7% of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) gas production is shut in out of normal production of 7.4 Bcf/d, and it is estimated that 58.8% of oil production in the GOM is shut in out of regular production of 1.3 million b/d, Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported Wednesday.

The oil and gas outage numbers increased from Tuesday, when the MMS estimated that 45.7% of natural gas production and 57.1% of oil production was shut in.

MMS said some operators failed to report data on Monday and Tuesday on restoration efforts in the GOM following hurricanes Gustav and Ike and both evacuation and shut-in production figures provided for those days are inaccurate. Statistics from those two days will not be recalculated and steps have been taken to ensure full compliance, MMS said.

Based on data from reports submitted as of 11:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday, personnel are evacuated from 123 production platforms, equivalent to 17.2% of the 694 manned platforms in the GOM. Personnel from one rig are evacuated, which is equivalent to 0.9% of the 116 rigs operating in the GOM, MMS said.

As of Wednesday the Shell-operated Mars facility in the GOM has come back on-line, Shell said. West Delta 143 (Mensa production) and Ursa will come back on-line later this week. Mars, Ursa and West Delta 143 assets are coming back on-line after the completion of hurricane-related repairs and scheduled maintenance. Production ramp-up to normal rates will vary for each facility over the course of several days.

Southern Union Co. said Wednesday it completed preliminary evaluations of damage caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Ike, in particular, affected both the company’s transportation/storage and gathering/processing business segments. Notwithstanding the hurricane impacts, the company affirmed its previously announced adjusted earnings guidance for 2008 of $1.80-1.90/share but said it now expects to be at the lower end of the range.

Inspections have identified only limited and isolated damage at the company’s onshore Texas and Louisiana transportation and storage facilities, including Trunkline Gas Co. (TGC), Trunkline LNG Co. and Florida Gas Transmission. All onshore facilities are fully operational. Offshore facilities, including Sea Robin Pipeline and TGC’s Terrebonne system, have suffered damage to several platforms and are continuing to experience reduced volumes.

Trunkline said Wednesday its T-27 platform toppled, causing significant damage to this segment of its system. The pipeline said it does not intend to replace the toppled platform but does intend to make subsea repairs to bring the lateral back in service. Work on this segment will be done in two phases. The first phase will include capping the segment in Ship Shoal 274 to allow for flow to recommence from receipt points downstream of Ship Shoal 274 and upstream of T-25. The second phase will include reconnection of location 80261 in Ship Shoal 274 as well as the installation of a tie-in valve for a future reconnection to Tarpon Transmission Co. Trunkline anticipates completing the first phase of repair work and returning the segment to service by Nov. 24, it said. The completion timeline of the second phase will be determined soon.

Trunkline also said initial assessments indicate that its T-22 platform is listing. Trunkline is continuing to evaluate potential causes for the listing as well as the repairs needed. Trunkline will not allow flow to recommence across the T-22 platform until the integrity of the platform is verified and any necessary supplemental platform structure supports have been installed. Segments that are not cleared to flow due to the potential damage at T-22 include Grand Isle 94 to T-22, South Timbalier 179 to T-22 and South Timbalier 826 to T-22.

Sea Robin’s East Cameron 265 platform toppled during the storm, causing significant damage to Sea Robin’s West Leg, the pipeline said. Sea Robin does not intend to replace the toppled platform, but does intend to make subsea repairs to return this segment to service as soon as possible. It anticipates completing repairs and returning the segment to service by Nov. 24.

Sea Robin also said producer platform Eugene Island 330A toppled during the storm and its J Leg segment piping extending over the platform suffered significant damage and is out of service. Sea Robin intends to reconnect the J Leg piping subsea to return this segment to service as soon as possible. Sea Robin said it anticipates completing these repairs and returning the segment to service by Dec. 15.

While the facilities of Southern Union Gas Services (SUGS), the company’s gathering and processing business, were not affected by the hurricanes, SUGS’ third-party natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator sustained significant damage to its Mont Belvieu, TX, facility as a result of Ike. SUGS was forced to shut in its processing plants and attendant production for approximately a week but has gradually resumed operations and expects to be at or near full capacity by the end of the year. A portion of NGL production is being fractionated with the remainder being delivered into Mont Belvieu storage pending completion of repairs and previously scheduled maintenance at the fractionation facility. The stored NGLs will be fractionated and sold over the next few months, the company said.

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