Hurricane Michael shuts nearly 40% of US Gulf oil output
Companies had turned off daily production of about 670,800 barrels of oil by midday on Tuesday
Nearly 40% of daily crude oil production and more than one third of natural gas output was lost from offshore US Gulf of Mexico wells on Wednesday because of platform evacuations and shut-ins ahead of Hurricane Michael. Michael intensified to a Category 4 storm and is expected to hit the Florida Panhandle later on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 233km/h. Since Monday, oil producers — including Anadarko Petroleum, BHP Billiton, BP and Chevron — have evacuated personnel from 75 platforms as the storm makes its way through the central Gulf. The country’s largest privately owned crude terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, halted operations at its marine terminal. The facility is the only port in the US capable of fully loading and unloading a tanker with a capacity of 2-million barrels of oil. Companies had turned off daily production of about 670,800 barrels of oil and 20.5-million cubic metres of gas by midday on Tuesday, according to the federal offshore regulator, the...
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