Hurricane Ida Has Led To Largest Ever Initial Oil Output Loss In Gulf

Hurricane Ida has led to the largest-ever initial loss of crude oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico from a hurricane in the ten days since the first platforms were evacuated, according to estimates by Bloomberg.

Sixteen years to the date after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida crashed into the state on August 29 with Category 4 winds, 15-foot storm surge, and flooding.

During the ten days since the first platforms were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Ida in the middle of last week, 16.8 million barrels of oil production have been lost, Bloomberg's calculations show. To compare, this production loss is 32 percent higher than the output lost in the first ten days after Katrina in 2005, and 42 percent more than the ten-day loss of oil production after Gustav/Ike in 2008.

Disruptions from Katrina lasted for months, and some of the production never returned.

A week after Ida made landfall on August 29, and ten days after the first platforms were evacuated, as much as 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), or

88.32 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico production, continued to be shut-in as of September 5, data from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) shows. A total of 82.72 percent of the daily natural gas production in the Gulf was also shut-in as of Sunday evening.

The shut-in oil production was lower than on Thursday, when 1.7 million bpd, or 93.55 percent, of all daily crude output was offline.

Utilities across Louisiana are working to restore power to residential and commercial areas. According to Entergy, Hurricane Ida's Category 4 winds, 15-foot storm surge, and flooding made it one of the most devastating storms to hit the Entergy region. The estimated 950,000 customers affected are second only to Hurricane Katrina's 1.1 million who were left without power. Restoration times are up to three weeks in the hardest-hit parishes in Louisiana, Entergy said on Friday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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