Storm

The 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season is deep into its second half and there has yet to be any significant threat to natural gas and oil interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). But even if a tropical storm were to blow through the GOM, would it have the same impact on prices and supply as storms have in the past?

A ConocoPhillips chief analyst/strategist on Wednesday told an industry audience in Chicago that there will be no major hurricanes through the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) or elsewhere in the United States this year.

After more than three months of relative quiet, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season started to make noise Tuesday with the formation of a pair of tropical storms, though neither is expected to disrupt North American energy interests.

There has been a flurry of tropical storm activity across the Atlantic and the Caribbean this week, but with less than 90 days remaining in the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) remain unscathed, and the season has yet to produce a single hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) was reporting Friday afternoon that an area of low pressure off the Yucatan Peninsula in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico could threaten Gulf of Mexico (GOM) energy interests. Several companies had reported that they had begun evacuations of nonessential personnel.

The first two months of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season have been relatively quiet, but the peak mid-August through October portion of the season remains on track for above-normal tropical storm activity, according to forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Three storms in March failed to deter oil and natural gas operations in North Dakota, which set new all-time highs for the month, according to the latest statistics from the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

Over New Year’s Eve U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) crews contended with an Arctic storm while assisting Royal Dutch Shell plc’s grounded drillship The Kulluk on the southeast shoreline of Sitkalidak Island, AK. Shell emphasized that the grounding is a maritime accident and not related to drilling, and that there was no risk of an oil spill.

Tropical Storm Debby made her presence felt in June monthly production figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) as natural gas production from the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was off 6.8% from May (see NGI, Aug. 6).