U.S.: Storm Cuts Gulf Oil Production By 28%, Gas By 10%

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--About 28% of oil production and about 10% of natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down Friday due to Tropical Storm Bonnie, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said. Estimated energy production from the Gulf of Mexico as of March had been 1.6 million barrels of oil a day and 6.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, the bureau said in a press release. Personnel from a total of 11 production platforms, equivalent to 1.74% of the 634 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, have been evacuated so far because of the threat of Bonnie, which has moved over south Florida and is expected to head toward south Louisiana through the eastern and central Gulf over the weekend. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is the new name for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service, or MMS. The bureau said personnel from two rigs also have been evacuated; there had been 39 rigs operating in the Gulf. Vessels and drilling rigs involved in the BP PLC (BP) response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf have been required to curtail or halt operations and to begin evacuations, the bureau said. -By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; isabel.ordonez@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 23, 2010 14:28 ET (18:28 GMT)