US Gulf Natgas Output Restarting
The US Department of Energy's latest bulletin shows that most of the offshore production shut in by Tropical Storm Harvey has returned to production.
The share of offshore US Gulf natural gas production shut in has fallen from 19% on August 29 to 8% as of September 4.
At at 1pm US Eastern Daylight Time September 4, it said the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reported that 121,484 b/d (6.94%) of oil production and 259.19 million ft3/d (8.05%) of natural gas production in the federally administered areas of the US Gulf of Mexico were shut-in.
BSEE indicated that its September 4 update would be the final update related to Tropical Storm Harvey.
Texas had 64,308 customer outages (less than 1% of total state customers) without power supplies as at 2.30pm EDT, September 4, it added, also much lower than a week ago. But eight oil refineries in the US Gulf Coast region remained shut down, representing 11.4% of total US refining capacity.
DOE meanwhile said that Hurricane Irma continues to track 14 miles/hour westward in the Atlantic with sustained winds of 120 miles/hour. It said a hurricane watch has been issued for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and that, according to the National Weather Service, "there is an increasing chance of seeing some impacts from Irma in the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys later this week and weekend." DOE said it will continue to monitor the track of Irma and potential impacts to US energy infrastructure.
Mark Smedley