- BP restarted production at its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms on Thursday.
- BP halted production at both platforms on Monday ahead of Hurricane Ian.
- Hurricane Ian has since weakened to a Category 1 storm, although parts of Florida are still affected.
BP has restarted production at its Na Kika and Thunder Horse offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after redeploying previously evacuated staff, BP PLC said Thursday.
BP halted production at both platforms on Monday ahead of Hurricane Ian making landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
Chevron had also evacuated personnel and halted production at its Petronius and Blind Faith platforms in the Gulf before the storm.
As of Thursday, a total of 11 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico had been evacuated, representing 2.11% of GOM’s total capacity, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Five platforms had been evacuated, representing 35% of the total in GoM, and 3 DP platforms had been repositioned. A total of 157,706 bpd of oil production had been shut down Thursday, along with 128 MMCFD of gas.
A total of 9.12% of GoM’s oil production has been shut down since Thursday, along with 5.95% of total gas production.
Hurricane Ian has so far claimed an unknown number of lives after heavy rains, high winds and widespread flooding devastated Florida. Nearly 2.6 million Florida residents are now without power and natural gas futures fell about 3% on Thursday on the prospect of lower demand.
Florida Power & Light reported Thursday that parts of its system should be rebuilt, not restored, warning customers that they should be prepared for “widespread and prolonged outages” when assessing damage. FPL said work was already underway to restore power to some customers where it was safe to do so.
Hurricane Ian has since weakened to a Category 1 storm, although parts of Florida are still affected.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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