Storm

The body of an oil worker, one of 10 workers who were forced to abandon a liftboat in the southern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during Tropical Storm (TS) Nate, has been recovered.

The body of an oil worker, one of 10 workers who were forced to abandon a liftboat in the southern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during Tropical Storm (TS) Nate, has been recovered. Geokinetics Inc. CEO Richard Miles said that the victim, one of three employees who were aboard the liftboat Trinity II, was recovered Thursday. Miles said the second employee was among the seven men rescued on Sept. 12 but he died shortly afterward. He said the third employee was still recovering in a hospital Friday. The Trinity II was supporting an ocean bottom cable project in the Bay of Campeche for Geokinetics, which performs seismic testing for the oil and gas industry (see NGI, Sept. 12). The company said TS Nate disabled the liftboat and forced the crew to abandon ship and board a life raft.

A Bangladeshi oil worker, one of seven rescued Sunday in the southern Gulf of Mexico after being adrift for three days during Tropical Storm (TS) Nate, has died in a Mexican hospital.

When the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins Wednesday (June 1), it will usher in five months of active tropical storm production, including a “significant threat for hurricane landfall” in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), forecasters at Andover, MA-based WSI Corp. said last week.

Prices were down nearly across the board Wednesday, even with a potent winter storm having occupied the Pacific Northwest/Rockies region and a new mass of arctic air from Canada bearing down on the Midwest and eventually the Northeast. However, much of the rest of the market was staying fairly moderate for late February, and the Northeast would get slightly warmer Wednesday before starting to see snow shows as the weekend got nearer.

It might not set records like the one in New England during mid-January, but another major winter storm spreading into most market areas was generating flat to as much as about 95 cents higher prices at most non-Northeast locations Tuesday. The previous day’s futures gain of 9.7 cents gave a little extra support to cash.

Subfreezing lows will be left in the wake of an icy coastal storm moving out to sea, but Northeast residents will no doubt welcome the chance to finish cleaning up in relatively dry conditions after the devastating blizzards in the middle of last week. Thus Northeast citygates took nearly all of Tuesday’s price hits ranging from about 40 cents to the $1.50 area (the Florida citygate chipped in with a loss of about a nickel).

For a market lacking weather-based load for the most part, no significant tropical storm activity, a prior-day futures loss of 10.4 cents and another big addition to already-abundant storage inventories anticipated, it seems that softness would be paramount. But prices still mostly saw small increases anyway.

Prices declined by major amounts Tuesday as Tropical Storm Alex refused to become a hurricane and appeared determined to make landfall in northeastern Mexico, well clear of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production area. Also, heat levels, while still fairly warm in the southern U.S., had receded to some extent since last week.