The company, whose production comes exclusively from the Gulf of Mexico, lucked out big time, because according to the US Minerals Management Services (MMS) the damage count reads seven platforms totalled, four platforms with extensive damage, seven drilling rigs were cast adrift from their moorings and 13 pipeline leaks located thus far over the 33,000 miles of pipeline in the Gulf.
One of the leaks resulted in a fire which eventually burned out.
While Australian firms including BHP and Woodside seem to have been fairly protected from the wrath of Ivan, other firms operating in the Gulf were not so lucky.
Noble Drilling had its Noble Jim Thompson cast adrift and has major damage to one of the rig’s crane booms. Transocean located its Deepwater Nautilus 70 miles north-east of its original location. Diamond Offshore Drilling’s Ocean Warwick jack-up “sustained damage” and was towed to drydock, although it got lucky with its semi subs Ocean Star and Ocean America which only lost their anchor chains and wires.
Ensco International’s ENSCO 64 jackup, which was in the path of the storm, “sustained damage” and its Ensco 25 platform rig suffered damage to its helideck.
Devon Energy confirmed the storm will reduce its third quarter production to 750,000 bpd down by 650,000 bpd and its production in the Main Pass blocks 153 and 175 areas and in the South Pass block 65 area sustained storm damage.
Magnum Hunter Resources’ facilities in Main Pass and West Cameron suffered minor damages with a repair bill of around US$500,000 but it still expects its September production levels to drop by 31% and its October levels by 13%. ChevronTexaco’s Gulf oil production levels are currently at 60% capacity.
Some of the firms were luckier than others. Falcon Gas Storage Co’s MoBay Storage Hub facilities, which consisted of four separate producing gas reservoirs, took the full brunt of Ivan but came away with “only minor damage”. MoBay was up and running 72 hours after Ivan hit made landfall.
In Petsec’s statement yesterday it said, “Energy’s West Cameron 343/352 and Vermilion 258 platforms were undamaged in the recent hurricane activity. Approximately two day’s production was lost due to shut-ins at various times.”
“Drilling of the Vermilion 258 G-3 and G-7 wells is now expected to commence in October as a result of delays in availability of the drilling rig, following the recent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico,” it added.
Woodside Petroleum and BHP Billiton both have investments in the Gulf and have not yet advised the market at this stage as to how Ivan has affected their drilling programs. BHP currently has the CR Luigs drill ship under long term contract in the Gulf and is building the Atlantis and Mad Dog deepwater developments in the region also at the Atwater Valley.
Other BHP interests include the Typhoon oil and gas field, the Boris oil and gas field, the Genesis oil field, the West Cameron 76 gas platform, the Green Canyon 18/Ewing Bank 988 oil and gas platform and the Subsea tiebacks at Green Canyon 60 to Green Canyon 18.
