Small oil producers take hit from hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf Coast

HOUSTON

As the industry continues to assess damage from hurricanes Ike and Gustav, many of those mom-and-pop shops appear to have taken a beating. Of the 49 platforms destroyed last weekend by Ike, 44 produced less than 1,000 barrels of oil a day, according to assessments from the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

“Anytime a hurricane comes through, we average a minimum of two weeks getting back on line, and that’s on a best-case basis,” said Washington, whose Dallas-based outfit operates several production facilities along the Louisiana coast. Most produce 100 to 300 barrels a day.

That’s just a sliver of the Gulf’s total daily offshore production of 1.3 million barrels. But combined, the nation’s roughly 5,000 independent operators account for 68 per cent of oil and 82 per cent of the natural gas produced in the U.S., according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

The Canadian Press