Still in recovery: Gulf oil production off 28%, and gas off 20%

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita dealt such a severe blow to oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico that energy experts now say the flow of petroleum won’t be fully restored until next summer.

“The damage was more severe and in harder-to-reach places than many expected, such as the bottom of the ocean, that usually isn’t affected that much,” said Steve Parker, energy analyst at Kercheville & Co. in San Antonio. “The storms tracked right through the heart of the gulf’s oil and gas operations.”
The two storms plowed through 3,050 of the 4,000 drilling platforms in the gulf, destroying 108 mostly old structures and significantly damaging 53 platforms. Modern equipment fared better; only one major platform was damaged significantly, the Minerals Management Service has reported.

Even so, 28 percent of gulf oil production remains closed, amounting to almost 414,495 barrels a day. And more than 2.01 billion cubic feet of natural gas