Ernesto prompts evacuations in Gulf of Mexico
Hurricane Ernesto threatened Haiti with deadly floods and prompted evacuations in Florida and Cuba on Sunday as it headed for the Gulf of Mexico a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
Residents of the battered United States Gulf coast jazz city were breathing more easily as the Atlantic seasons first hurricane took a path that left Louisiana outside the danger zone but raised alarms in Florida, weary from eight hurricanes in the last two years.
Cuba, facing its first hurricane in decades without President Fidel Castro at the helm, began evacuating 200 000 people from its eastern provinces and called its fishing fleet to harbour as Ernesto, with 120km/h winds, swept through the Caribbean Sea just south of Haiti.
More : iol.co.za
Mexico evacuations begin as Wilma closes in
Mexico has begun evacuations on Wednesday of high risk areas of the Yucatan peninsula, a major tourist draw, as powerful Hurricane Wilma churned closer.
The island of Mujeres close to the holiday resort of Cancun, was believed to be one of the most at risk of being targeted by Wilma, the most powerful storm recorded in the Atlantic.
"Some of the computer models are showing it getting closer and closer to the peninsula, and we may be facing a potential landfall in some areas of the northeast of the Yucatan, in the area of Isla Mujeres,"
All Gulf of Mexico rigs, platforms remanned: MMS
All 953 oil and natural-gas rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have been remanned following the evacuations last week because of Hurricane Dennis, according to the latest report from the U.S. Minerals Management Service. A total of 5.3 million barrels of oil production and 23.2 billion cubic feet of natural-gas output were shut in between July 8 and July 14, the MMS said
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Chevron evacuating Gulf of Mexico workers before Rita
Chevron Corp. said Monday it is evacuating oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico before Tropical Storm Rita hits, a move which could reduce oil production in the region.
based Chevron (NYSE:CVX) told Reuters that its evacuations were a normal procedure, similar to what it did before Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf.
Chevron didn't say how the evacuation will affect its oil or natural gas production.
Tropical Storm Rita was heading toward the Florida Keys and several weather models projected it would enter the Gulf and become a category one hurricane.
Reuters
Oil Production Down 78 Percent in Gulf of Mexico
The U.S. government says oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was nearly 80 percent below normal as of Saturday, five days after Hurricane Katrina tore through the region.
A report from the U.S. Minerals Management Service said Katrina had cut oil production in the Gulf by about 1.18 million barrels of oil per day. It said more than 280 offshore oil-drilling rigs and platforms remained evacuated.
The figures represent a slight improvement from Friday, when oil production in the Gulf was nearly 90 percent below normal.
Katrina's disruption to Gulf-area oil production and refineries
Shell, BP evacuate Gulf of Mexico workers due to Hurricane Katrina
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC have evacuated workers from their platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Katrina heads towards the area.
Shell, in a statement, said it will evacuate around 120 non-essential staff from the eastern part of its Gulf operations as a 'precaution'.
A BP spokesman said it will also evacuate a still undetermined number of workers.
Both companies said the move will not affect their Gulf production.
Katrina came ashore in Florida on Thursday, killing at least three people and leaving about 1.5 mln
Woodside chases Gulf of Mexico deal
Woodside Petroleum Ltd will expand its interests in the Gulf of Mexico, if a $US883 million ($A1.17 billion) takeover bid for US-based explorer and producer Energy Partners Ltd (EPL) is successful.
Woodside, through its wholly owned subsidiary ATS Inc, has offered $US23 cash per share for the 38.396 million of EPL shares on issue in the US.
Woodside said the acquisition would immediately increase its production and reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, with EPL producing around 28,000 barrels of oil a day on average.
More : theage.com.au
Gulf of Mexico acts as gale
Millions of people cowered in fear yesterday as Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with 225-kilometre-an-hour winds fuelled by the warm waters of the the Gulf of Mexico.
After stumbling across southern Florida as a weak category one storm late last week, Katrina wobbled into the Gulf and surged in strength over the next four days, becoming several times stronger before coming ashore yesterday as a category four hurricane with a storm track almost 640 km wide.
In terms of Gulf hurricanes, Katrina was almost the perfect storm.
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Senate Pushes Expanded Oil Drilling in Gulf of Mexico
In the 1980s, Senators and Representatives introduced legislation to protect the Gulf of Mexico, to restrict drilling. This Congress plans to expand drilling. This week the Senate quadrupled the Presidents request (map - pdf) for new acreage in the Gulf of Mexico.
Less than two weeks after S. 3711 was introduced, the Senate voted 71-25 to open up an additional 8.3 million acres of east-central Gulf of Mexico to drilling, ostensibly to provide relief for consumers.
However, no new crude will hit the market for 4-5 years -- and when it does,
BHP Billiton says most Gulf of Mexico output restored
Anglo-Australian resources group BHP Billiton (BHP) said Thursday that production has restarted at most of its Gulf of Mexico oil wells, which stopped production last week because of Hurricane Katrina.
"All fields are in production except Boris and Mad Dog," a Melbourne-based spokeswoman said.
BHP produces about 25,000 barrels of oil a day in the Gulf, from the Mad Dog, West Cameron, Genesis, Green Canyon, Typhoon and Boris fields.
Teams are working to get the remaining two fields back into production as soon as possible, the spokeswoman said.
The statement was made
BP, Shell say Gulf of Mexico ops still suspended
BP PLC and the Royal Dutch Shell said their operations at the Gulf of Mexico remained suspended even as initial inspection showed the offshore facilities sustained little damage from Hurricane Rita.
'The (US Gulf) facilities as of Monday are still completely shut. The situation is still the same,' said a BP spokeswoman.
BP continues to check the facilities and will not allow operations to resume until it is completely certain that it is safe to do so.
'Initial assessment on Sunday via aerial overflights and small crews placed on several BP-operated deepwater
