More Than a Quarter of US Gulf of Mexico Oil Output Offline

More than a quarter of crude oil production and nearly 17% of natural gas output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was offline in the aftermath of Hurricane Rafael, the U.S. offshore energy regulator said on Saturday.

The late season storm entered the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful category three hurricane on Wednesday and moved into the central Gulf, prompting oil firms to evacuate dozens of production and drilling facilities. Rafael has weakened into a tropical storm, but will meander in the central Gulf for at least the next two days, the National Hurricane Center said.

There were 490,241 barrels of oil and 313 million cubic feet of natural gas shut-in on Saturday, offshore regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reported.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 15% of total U.S. crude oil production and 2% of dry natural gas production.

Oil and gas workers have been evacuated from 41 of the 371 manned production platforms, and seven drilling vessels have been moved out of the storm's path, BSEE said.

Storm losses this week have totaled 1.59 million barrels of oil and 826 million cubic feet of natural gas, according to BSEE data.