Nearly 92% of all Gulf of Mexico oil production remains shut in as Hurricane Delta moves toward the Louisiana coast, according to the most recent federal statistics.
Crude oil production currently shut-in amounts to 1.69 million barrels per day, along with natural gas production of 1.68 Bcf/d, or 62% of the Gulf's total, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Delta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 miles per hour on Friday, said the National Hurricane Center.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly 1.9 million b/d of crude production capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Gulf of Mexico producers including Shell, BP and Chevron said they had already finished evacuating crews and shutting in production as the storm neared land.
CITGO Petroleum’s Lake Charles refinery and Philips 66’s 260,000 b/d Westlake refinery are still offline due to damage caused by Hurricane Laura in August. Hurricane Delta might delay the return of those two plants, which would help to drive oil prices higher, despite the International Energy Agency reporting lower global oil demand due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Delta is the 10th named storm to make a US landfall this year, eclipsing a record that has held since 1916. It is projected to downgrade to a tropical storm as it moves northeast through Louisiana before weakening further to a tropical depression later that day as it moves through northern Mississippi and into Tennessee.
