After creating a pretty good scare for Gulf of Mexico producers at the end of last week, Tropical Storm Erika remained just that, a tropical storm, failing to reach hurricane status as it made landfall Saturday approximately 30 miles south of Brownsville, TX on the edge of the Mexican border city of Matamoros.

Friday late afternoon, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expected Tropical Storm Erika to make landfall in South Texas and Northeastern Mexico as a hurricane (see Daily GPI, Aug. 18). “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in the hurricane warning area,” the Miami, FL-based NHC said at the time.

Producers were none too sad to see Erika not fulfill those predictions. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Monday afternoon that Erika created little disturbance to Gulf activities.

The government agency reported that the cumulative impact from Erika (Friday-Sunday) resulted in approximately 334.29 MMcf of shut-in gas production, which is equivalent to 0.007% of the yearly production of gas in the Gulf, which is 5.1 Tcf. Cumulative oil shut-in was 9,451 bbls, which is equivalent to 0.002% of the Gulf’s yearly oil production, which is about 584 million barrels.

In comparison, the slightly more aggressive Hurricane Claudette caused significantly higher total shut-ins (see Daily GPI, July 17), From Friday July 11 through Thursday July 17, the MMS pegged shut-in production at approximately 8.043 Bcf, which is equivalent to 0.158% of the Gulf’s yearly production. Over the same period, Claudette shut-in 1,265,474 bbls of oil, which is equivalent to 0.217% of yearly production.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.