This would lead to a shortage of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and major drilling delays for companies in the US and around the world, according to ODS-Petrodata, which provides market information to the offshore oil and gas industry.
The US Coast Guard said nine semi-submersible rigs had broken free from their moorings and were adrift.
ODS-Petrodata said while Hurricane Katrina was stronger than Rita, it moved through mature areas of the US Gulf containing mostly oil production platforms while Rita hit the western gulf where there was a lot of exploratory rig activity.
Meanwhile, BHP Billiton is at a loss to explain how Rita severed the moorings of its Typhoon platform, sending it drifting across the Gulf for almost 270km.
“The facility was designed to withstand these conditions, so we don’t know why it went off location,” a BHP spokesperson told The Australian Financial Review.
BHP yesterday reported that the $256 million platform had suffered “severe damage” and had been found floating about 100km off the Louisiana coast. The company said it was too soon to tell whether the Chevron-operated platform could be salvaged and returned to operation.
The damage has raised questions about whether BHP would write off its the Typhoon and Boris oil and gas fields, which use the platform. Production is declining in the fields and exhaustion is expected by 2008, so much could depend on the size of the repair bill.
BHP has said its other Gulf operations, including Mad Dog and Atlantis , appeared to have escaped mostly unscathed.
Woodside also said yesterday that it had restarted 10% of its gas production in the Gulf, where it typically produces 30 million cubic feet per day.
Meanwhile, Petsec said its Vermilion-258 platform had suffered minor damage, but was expected to resume production later this week. The company is still waiting to inspect its West Cameron-343/352 platform.
A quarter of US refining capacity and oil production remained offline overnight, in the wake of hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
The US Department of Energy said both storms had halted about four million barrels per day of oil refining capacity – just under 25% of the country’s fuel production.
