U.S Offshore Oil Output Remains Low After Ida

A week after Hurricane Ida made landfall, oil production in the Gulf remains at a standstill. It has been estimated that around 88% of crude oil output and 83% of natural gas production has been halted until further notice.
Energy companies in the region have been dealing with the devastating effects of the hurricane which damaged platforms and caused power outages. Only 100,000 barrels of crude oil have been added since last Saturday whereas 1.6 million barrels remained offline. Natural gas production has also been greatly affected as another 1.8 billion cubic feet per day was shutdown.
According to latest news, a total of 104 oil and gas platforms were evacuated for safety measures. The largest gulf coast producer in the Gulf, Royal Dutch Shell, had to redeploy its staff and shut down production to 80%.
Oil refineries in Louisiana have been restarted to resume operations including three in Baton Rouge and one in New Orleans. Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) is currently in the initial stage of reopening and will start making 578,000 barrels as before. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) is also back on track with production at 520,000 barrels per day.
However, complete restoration of operations is expected to take a couple of weeks. This delay is mainly caused by the current flooding and power outages in New Orleans. According to Entergy Corp, some refineries may still remain without power until the end of September.