Hurdles to restart oil and gas activities after Hurricane Ida

U.S. oil and gas companies face challenges at offshore operations as the extent of Hurricane Ida's damages became more evident.

Hurricane Ida winds flew at 240 kph (150-mile-per-hour)  hitting hardly the U.S’ energy infrastructure. 

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said “based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 CDT today, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 249 production platforms, 44.46 percent of the 560 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.”

The production platforms are the structures located offshore from which oil and gas are produced and they remain in the same location throughout a project’s duration.The Gulf of Mexico holds 14 active drilling rigs and more than 1,000 fixed production platforms.

According to Bloomberg, oil companies halted the equivalent of 1.74 million barrels of daily crude output.

The storm affected plants in southeast Louisiana operated by Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero Energy and PBF Energy.