Interior Hurricane Recovery and
Preparation Activity
Update on Gulf of Mexico
and Southeastern Coastal States
As Tropical Depression Gustav recedes, Interior employees and emergency management personnel in the Gulf of Mexico region continue to carry out their mission response and recovery activities, while Interior agencies along the Southeast Coast begin preparing for Tropical Storm Hanna, which is expected to make landfall in the Carolinas on Saturday, Sept. 6, possibly as a Category 1 hurricane.
The Minerals Management Service Continuity of Operations Plan team MMS continues to monitor and work with offshore oil and natural gas operators to evaluate Gustav’s effects on production platforms and drilling rigs on the Gulf of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf; and to restore production as quickly as possible while preventing oil spills that can threaten the environment. The team will remain activated until operations return to normal and the storm no longer threatens Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities.
Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf are beginning to return personnel to some offshore platforms and rigs and restore production that had been shut down as a safety precaution due to Hurricane Gustav. About 105 Outer Continental Shelf production platforms were re-manned in the past few days, and about 5 percent of OCS oil and 8 percent of OCS natural gas production had been restored, according to reports from offshore operators.
MMS reported today that 527 production platforms, equivalent to 73.5 % of the 717 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, remain evacuated. On Sept. 2, operators reported that 632 production platforms, about 88 % of the total, had been evacuated. Sixty-three drilling rigs also remained evacuated today, about 52 % of the 121 rigs currently operating in the Gulf. Personnel from 110 rigs, about 91 percent of the total, had been evacuated by Sept. 2, according to operator reports to MMS. About 95% of Gulf OCS oil and 87% of OCS natural gas production remain shut in. At the height of Hurricane Gustav, 100 percent of oil and 95 percent of natural gas production had been shut in.
The production percentages are calculated using information submitted by offshore operators in daily reports. Under normal, non-storm conditions, the estimated current oil production from the Gulf of Mexico is 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and 7.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. MMS issues updated oil and gas shut-in statistics daily at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne estimated that while some offshore oil and gas production would likely be restarted this week, most production would come back online in about two weeks.
In other Interior activities responding to Hurricane Gustav, the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center is coordinating video and still photography over flights of Gulf coastal areas and barrier islands today (3 Sept) and tomorrow (4 Sept) and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) flights on 5 Sept along Louisiana and Mississippi coasts to document coastal change, erosion and other damage to these areas from Gustav.
USGS crews will be recovering the 112 storm surge sensors it had placed to monitor Gustav’s impact and are preparing to make flood measurements along Gustav’s path into northern Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Illinois as conditions warrant. Other crews are preparing for potential flood measurements in north Georgia and the Carolinas as warranted, following the track of TS/Hurricane Hanna after landfall.
The National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had deployed 30 search and rescue boats and crews to assist in recovery efforts as needed and the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested an additional 30 crews to stage in Texarkana, Texas. On Sept. 3, FEMA ordered the demobilization of all but 21 of the boat crews, leaving 21 boats and 42 crewmembers and four overhead personnel in Texarkana with a potential follow on mission assignment to stage in Atlanta, Georgia for the arrival of Hurricane Hanna. The USFWS and USGS crews have been released.
National parks, wildlife refuges, USGS facilities, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management offices and other Interior buildings and units in Gulf coastal areas affected by Gustav remain closed as damage assessments continue. No employee deaths or injuries have been reported.
Interior employees in Southeast coastal states are starting to prepare facilities for the expected arrival of Tropical Storm Hanna, closing units, evacuating employees, activating emergency management and continuity of operations plans, prepositioning equipment, personnel and food, water and medical supplies for response and recovery activities.