U.S. Gulf energy output slow to return after Gustav

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico continued to recover slowly in the wake of Hurricane Gustav on Friday as a second fierce storm threatened to enter the energy-rich region next week.

Some 90.5 percent of U.S. Gulf oil production and 79.8 percent of its natural gas production remained shut as of 11:30 a.m. CDT (12:30 p.m. EDT), from 95.2 percent and 87.5 percent respectively on Thursday, the Minerals Management Service said in a report.

“The slow going recovery rate in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico may be reflecting operators’ caution in bringing back their personnel or otherwise putting their rigs back into operation as they are still determining whether Hurricane Ike is going to hit the Gulf,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy, Stamford, Connecticut.

Hurricane Ike, a fierce Category 3 storm on the five step Saffir Simson scale, was spinning about 425 miles north of the Leeward Islands Friday on a track that could take it into the eastern Gulf of Mexico by next Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Reuters