Offshore Gulf of Mexico natural gas production climbed about 3%, or 267 MMcf/d, on Thursday compared to levels on Wednesday, but 66%, or 6,628.07 MMcf/d, remained shut in, according to the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Since Aug. 26, a cumulative total of 240.074 Bcf has been shut in, which is about 6.57% of the annual Gulf output.

If shut-ins average 3 Bcf/d through the end of the year, a total of 501 Bcf of 2005 gas production will have been lost, or about 14% of the annual total. To put that in perspective, consider that the total annual production of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming is expected to be about 420 Bcf this year.

MMS also said Thursday that 68 companies are reporting that 289 manned platforms and six rigs are still evacuated. Those exclude the 111 platforms and five rigs that were destroyed by the hurricanes. A total of 1.2 billion bbl/d of oil remains shut in, or about 80% of the daily output offshore. Since pre-Hurricane Katrina, the oil shut ins amount to 49 million bbl, or about 8.9% of the annual oil production in the Gulf.

Golden, CO-based Bentek Energy reported Thursday that a total of 7,294 MMcf/d of offshore and onshore Gulf of Mexico gas production was still shut in compared to 7,343 MMcf/d on Wednesday. Basing its estimates on scheduled production receipts on the region’s major pipeline systems, Bentek said about 6,527 MMcf/d of production was scheduled to flow Thursday compared to 13,820 MMcf/d on Aug. 26 prior to Katrina. Bentek estimates that cumulative shuts ins onshore and offshore now total 255.2 Bcf.

Damage repairs continue, but producers and services companies continue to see earnings and output drop for the third quarter because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Repairs are underway at Enterprise Products Partners LP’s damaged natural gas processing facility in Chalmette, LA, but the partnership said Thursday there is no estimate on how long it will take to repair three other Louisiana gas processing plants, including two operated by Dynegy Inc.

Currently, six of the 10 Louisiana gas processing plants in which Enterprise owns various interests are operational and are either in the process of ramping up volumes or are waiting on production from upstream facilities. These plants are currently processing 1.1 Bcf/d, compared with 5.2 Bcf/d before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Enterprise said.

“A definitive estimate of the time it will take to complete repairs to our 29.4%-owned Yscloskey [LA] natural gas processing plant and our 13.1%-owned Venice [LA] natural gas processing plant and the associated natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator has not been completed by Dynegy Inc., the plants’ operator,” Enterprise said in a statement.

The aggregate natural gas processing capacity of the Toca, Yscloskey and Venice facilities is 4.25 Bcf/d, but the average volume of natural gas being processed by the plants in August prior to Katrina was 2 Bcf/d, Enterprise said.

Hurricane Rita inflicted no damage on the Louisiana fractionators, but some operational problems continue. Among other things, the date that the 15.5%-owned Sea Robin plant will ramp up has not been announced by Amerada Hess, the plant operator.

“Our 30%-owned propylene fractionator near Baton Rouge is operating at pre-storm levels,” Enterprise said. “Our 50%-owned Promix fractionator returned to service following Hurricane Rita and completed processing mixed NGLs that had been accumulated in storage facilities. Promix, our 100%-owned Norco fractionator and 32.2%-owned Baton Rouge fractionator are operational and waiting for production from upstream natural gas processing plants to return to normal operations. ”

In a report issued Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DOE) said 21 gas processing plants in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi remain shuttered either for lack of power, gas supplies or damage to the facilities themselves (see Daily GPI, Oct. 5). DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) also reported that 23 pipelines were damaged during Hurricane Rita and 21 during Hurricane Katrina.

All of Enterprise’s oil and natural gas pipelines in the Gulf are operational except for the Phoenix gas pipeline, a portion of the Viosca Knoll natural gas pipeline, the Typhoon oil and gas pipeline laterals and the High Island offshore natural gas pipeline.

The Phoenix natural gas pipeline system gathers natural gas from the Redhawk field located in the Garden Banks area of the Central Gulf of Mexico. Although no damage was reported to the production facilities and Enterprise’s Phoenix gas pipeline system was not damaged, deliveries to the downstream pipeline facilities have been suspended pending repairs to downstream pipelines which are expected during 4Q2005. The Phoenix pipeline system was gathering approximately 125 MMcf/d prior to Rita.

The Viosca Knoll gas gathering system located in the eastern Gulf has been returned to service. Preliminary subsurface inspection of the western end of the system indicated a possible leak and movement of the pipeline because of Katrina. Enterprise said the western portion of the system has been isolated and the eastern segment of the pipeline is currently flowing 130 MMcf/d of gas. Another 300 MMcf/d is expected to begin flowing “in the next few weeks” from additional fields connected to the Viosca Knoll system.

Preliminary assessments of the Typhoon oil and natural gas gathering pipelines indicate no major damage to Enterprise’s assets. These pipelines, which will be idle until the Typhoon production platform operated by Chevron is restored or replaced, were flowing 15,000 bbl/d of oil and 20 MMcf/d of gas before the storm.

Also, the High Island offshore gas pipeline system and the East Breaks gas gathering systems were not damaged and are operational. Resumption of service on these pipelines is subject to repairs to downstream pipelines. which are expected this month. The High Island system was transporting approximately 600 MMcf/d prior to Rita.

The Anaconda natural gas pipeline system is flowing 5 MMcf/d, compared with 30 MMcf/d before the storm. The Falcon gas pipeline system has returned to service and is gathering its pre-storm volumes of 160 MMcf/d, and the Nautilus and Manta Ray gas pipelines are in the initial stages of ramping up volumes and are currently flowing 200 MMcf/d of gas from fields in the Southern Green Canyon area. This compares to 400 MMcf/d at pre-storm levels.

“Inspections of our platforms have been completed with no major damage reported,” Enterprise said. “All platforms are in service except Garden Banks 72 and East Cameron 373 which are waiting on repairs to downstream gas pipelines prior to returning to service.”

In related news, Chevron Corp. said 80% of its Gulf oil and gas production remained shut in. Many of its facilities were damaged or were knocked over and need repair, the oil major said. Restarting output also will depend on whether the pipelines and onshore terminals are operating.

“Approximately 20% of the company’s net production in the Gulf of Mexico has been restored,” Chevron said. “A number of production facilities sustained damage and 14 structures were toppled.”

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