Hurricanes destroy 108 oil platforms

WASHINGTON - A total of 108 low-producing oil and natural gas offshore platforms were destroyed by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and some of the other 53 damaged platforms could be offline until next year.

US Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the destroyed platforms were unlikely to be rebuilt and the damage repair bill elsewhere would run into "billions of dollars".
About 90 per cent of crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was still shut off and 72 per cent of offshore natural gas production was out of action.

Norton said repairs to platforms with major damage could run into next year, while restaffing evacuated rigs that escaped damage could take another 10 days.

Johnnie Burton, head of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, said 30 per cent of offshore oil and gas production might be shut off because of damage to onshore oil refineries and natural gas processing plants.

A dozen oil refineries and 21 gas processing plants remain out of action after the hurricanes.

Norton said the department would not know for several more weeks exactly how much shut Gulf production was due to damaged facilities on land, or whether damaged offshore platforms and underwater pipelines were at fault.

Burton said the damage done to underwater pipelines by the two hurricanes was not as severe as the damage done by underwater mudslides during Hurricane Ivan last year.

Some 342 offshore platforms are still evacuated after the hurricanes ploughed through the heart of the oil and gas-producing region.

- REUTERS