Evacuated

Residents who voluntarily evacuated their Caddo Parish, LA, homes on Monday after state officials found that natural gas had contaminated private water wells were told Wednesday to stay away at least another day until test results are completed. Natural gas apparently leaked into an aquifer during a drilling test by EXCO Resources Inc. (see Daily GPI, April 21). Officials with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the natural gas in the water wells isn’t poisonous, but it could accumulate enough to cause an explosion. EXCO is paying for accommodations for the dislocated residents until they are allowed to return home.

Residents who voluntarily evacuated their Caddo Parish, LA, homes on Monday after state officials found that natural gas had contaminated private water wells were told Wednesday to stay away at least another day until test results are completed. Natural gas apparently leaked into an aquifer during a drilling test by EXCO Resources Inc. (see Daily GPI, April 21). Officials with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the natural gas in the water wells isn’t poisonous, but it could accumulate enough to cause an explosion. EXCO is paying for accommodations for the dislocated residents until they are allowed to return home.

Cash traders shrugged their shoulders at news that Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production was being shut in and personnel were being evacuated Sunday and Monday as Hurricane Ida approached the eastern GOM. In continuing to send most of the market lower again Monday, they preferred to concentrate on moderate weather outlooks for most areas and the previous Friday’s drop of 18.7 cents by November futures.

Chevron Corp. expects to restaff its downtown New Orleans office by the end of 1Q2006. The 750 employees who worked there were evacuated when Hurricane Katrina struck the city last August. Melody Meyer, vice president of Chevron’s Gulf of Mexico business unit, said the move back to the city was a “key milestone” for the company. “There is a strong feeling of homecoming for the employees who have already returned. Having our employees once again working together in New Orleans provides a sense of return to normalcy.” Most of the company’s New Orleans-based employees continued to live and work in Louisiana following the massive storm. Many of those displaced worked out of a Chevron office in Lafayette, LA, where the company built a temporary housing complex for employees and their families. In October, Chevron opened a temporary office in Madisonville, LA, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

As of Thursday morning, all the platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that were evacuated because of Hurricane Dennis were remanned, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said. MMS puts the total gas production still shut in at 268.29 MMcf/d as of 11: 30 a.m. CDT Thursday.

In its final report on Tropical Storm Arlene, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) Tuesday said there remained one platform that was still evacuated in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), along with 59 MMcf/d of shut-in natural gas and 5,696 bbl/d of crude oil. Only four producers reported losses to the MMS.

The amount of Gulf of Mexico gas production shut in due to damage from Hurricane Ivan dropped sharply this week to about 743 MMcf/d on Thursday from 1.2 Bcf/d last Friday. However, Southern Natural Gas has reported that pipeline replacement work at Main Pass 298 will leave about 240 MMcf/d shut in for six to 12 months.

The amount of Gulf of Mexico gas production shut in due to damage from Hurricane Ivan dropped sharply this week to about 743 MMcf/d on Thursday from 1.2 Bcf/d last Friday. However, Southern Natural Gas has reported that pipeline replacement work at Main Pass 298 will leave about 240 MMcf/d shut in for six to 12 months.

As many as 1,500 residents in two to three neighborhoods were evacuated Thursday after drillers hit a pocket of natural gas that caused a well to blow out behind a fire department substation in Carlsbad, NM, city Fire Chief Michael Reynolds said.