Wednesday September 2, 5:43 pm Eastern Time
FOCUS-Earl shuts near 40 pct of US
Gulf gas output
By Heather McCulloch
NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Hurricane Earl, churning
through the rich offshore gas fields of Texas and Louisiana, was
blamed Wednesday for shutting nearly 40 percent of the region's natural gas output, pipeline
operators said.
The federal Minerals Management Services office in New Orleans, compiling data from offshore
operators, said the daily flow of gas from U.S. Gulf fields fell 5.56 billion cubic feet (bcf) early
Wednesday, or about 8.3 percent of the overall 67 bcf of gas the U.S. produces each day.
Among those with major offshore gas-gathering pipeline systems, Duke Energy Co. (DUK - news)
reported a 1.1 bcf drop in daily flows through its Texas Eastern Co. (Tetco) system due to shut
production facilities, and 900 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) in its Terrebonne system.
Others confirming a drop were Coastal Corp.'s (CGP - news) ANR Pipeline Co., which said flows
fell 482 mmcfd in its High Island Offshore System (HIOS).
Columbia Gulf Transmission, a unit of Columbia Energy Co. (CG - news), reported a 675-mmcf/d
decrease in the flow rate through its system, while Sonat Inc. (SNT - news) estimated the drop in its
Mainline and Sea Robin pipelines totaled about 400 mmcf/d.
Enron Corp. (ENE - news) said its Florida Gas Transmission network lost flows totaling 200
mmcf/d.
Gas production started dwindling Tuesday as Earl, then a tropical storm, gathered strength in the
Gulf of Mexico and headed north for the Louisiana coast.
As a routine safety precaution, companies started evacuating crews Tuesday from the hundreds of
production platforms that dot the shallow coastal waters off the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The evacuation was nearly complete by early Wednesday, when Earl, now with sustained winds of
80 miles per hour, was upgraded to a hurricane.
Offshore platforms are designed to withstand a hurricane, and offshore operators said damage to
them was expected to be light since Earl wasn't a powerful hurricane.
As Earl continued to charge toward the Florida panhandle, the National Hurricane Center in Miami
issued a hurricane warning from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to the Suwannee River in the Florida
panhandle.
A hurricane warning indicates hurricane-force winds are likely inside the warning area within the
next 24 hours.
The interruption to production is likely to be short-lived. By midday Wednesday, several offshore
operators said they were ferrying workers back out to rigs that had already been passed by the
worst of the storm.
Gas prices, which shot higher Tuesday before Earl struck, settled back down Wednesday as
traders were reassured the storm was unlikely to cause any lasting damage.
Natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, for gas delivered in October at Henry
Hub in Louisiana, traded at $1.67 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) at 1345 EDT/1745
GMT, down 18.5 cents from its intraday peak Tuesday, when uncertainty linked to the storm was
at a peak. |
