Hurricane activity drives declines in GOM gas production

The potential for hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico led to evacuations of personnel from offshore platforms and declines in Gulf natural gas production this week.

Several producers, including Shell, BHP Billiton, Anadarko, and BP evacuated nonessential personnel from offshore facilities as a precaution against a tropical disturbance, currently known as Tropical Storm Hermine.

Declines in Gulf of Mexico production over the previous weekend, August 26–27, were mostly concentrated on the Destin pipeline system, a BP subsidiary, according to PointLogic.

The Destin pipeline is a major offshore interstate pipeline that receives natural gas produced from several offshore platforms and brings it to a processing plant in Pascagoula, Mississippi, before connecting with other major interstate systems.

Two of these systems—Transcontinental and Texas Eastern Transmission—also posted large decreases on Tuesday.

The storm could also lead to reduced consumption of natural gas for power generation, because tropical wind and rain generally lead to cooler temperatures and lower demand for air conditioning.

Late August to early September is generally the most active time of hurricane season, and several storm systems are currently forming in the Gulf and Atlantic.

While Gulf of Mexico natural gas production has declined substantially over the past several years, it still totaled 3.6 Bcfd in 2015, or about 4.6% of total US gas production.

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