Operators began returning workers to evacuated installations in the Gulf of Mexico Aug. 31 as Tropical Depression No. 9 built into Tropical Storm Hermine and turned away from oil and gas producing areas toward the northwestern Florida Coast (OGJ Online, Aug. 31, 2016).
BP PLC restored production at its Atlantis platform but said the Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms remained shut in.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC returned workers and resumed drilling that had been suspended while the depression was a threat.
At midday Sept. 1, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, production outages totaled 243,000 b/d of oil and 307 MMcfd of natural gas, both down from their levels of a day earlier.
