Weather could have played a role in this today. Very difficult to drill in heavy rains and flooding. Looks like they may have dodged a bullet as it moved further east.
Ida soaks Gulf Coast, disrupts energy output
MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) – A weakened Tropical Storm Ida drenched the U.S. Gulf Coast and oil installations on Monday, shutting down nearly 30 percent of Gulf energy production.
The center of the ragged storm was expected to cross the coast near Mobile, Alabama, early on Tuesday.
At one time a Category 2 hurricane, Ida's threat eased as winds dropped to 65 miles per hour (100 km per hour). Ida was forecast to weaken quickly as it moved inland, turning east over northern Florida.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter plucked two workers from a storm-damaged oil rig south of New Orleans. Ida is blamed for 124 flood and mudslide deaths in El Salvador.
The Coast Guard closed the Port of Mobile, halting traffic on Mobile Bay, and authorities closed schools and government offices in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida, telling residents of flood-prone areas and mobile homes to evacuate.
An overnight curfew was issued for part of the Alabama coast.
Ida, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm earlier on Monday, posed the first real storm threat of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season to Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas production, and forced some companies to shut down off-shore platforms and evacuate personnel.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service said Ida had shut down 29.6 percent of Gulf oil production and 27.5 percent of gas output.
Energy markets have been hypersensitive to Gulf cyclones since the devastating 2004 and 2005 seasons, when storms like Katrina disrupted U.S. output and sent pump prices soaring.
With Ida weakening, most offshore oil rigs in the Gulf won't see any damage, said Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist at private forecaster Planalytics Inc.
"I think that by tomorrow it will be normal operations across the production region," Rouiller said on Monday.
