Hurricane Shut in Statistics

According to the MMS, as of November 19, 58 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are still shut in. That's down from 81 one month ago. These platforms account for about 212,000 barrels per day of oil and 1,800,000,000 standard cubic feet of natural gas. That's about 16% of the oil and 24% of the gas produced in the GOM.

Things are improving slowly, but we are coming up on the winter months when the weather makes offshore construction work difficult.

Hurricane Shut in Statistics

According to the MMS, as of yesterday, 81 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are still shut in. These platforms account for about 506,000 barrels per day of oil and 2,700,000,000 standard cubic feet of natural gas. That's about 39% of the oil and 37% of the gas produced in the GOM.

With hurricanes shutting in a significant portion of the Gulf of Mexico every couple of years, wouldn't it be a good idea to get some oil from a different geographical area?

Hurricane Shut In Statistics

The latest MMS figures show 123 platforms still evacuated from the two storms. There is currently 764,000 Barrels per day of oil shut in (about 60% of normal production) and 3,500,000,000 cubic feet per day of gas shut in (about 50%).

What's the hold up, you say?

All that oil and gas has to find its way to shore via pipelines. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to verify that these pipelines have not been damaged. In some cases, they need to pressure test the entire length again. Pipelines gather production from several platforms into a single pipeline. If the pipeline is down, everything upstream is down.

GOM Production Statistics

Ike evacuation is underway and the GOM is shutting in.

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2008/press0911.htm

GOM Production Stats

Here are the production stats as of Sunday.

Production is recovering but bet on Ike to cause another shut in, even if it doesn't hit New Orleans.

Back Home

Arrved back home Frday evening. Did some grocery shopping in Alabama. Stuck in Sldell for over an hour because of some idiot causing an accident on the twin span bridge. House damage is slight and power was not out long enough to defrost the fridge. Almost back to normal but we are not unpacking the bug out bag until we see what Ike is going to do.

Production Statistics

Here is a link to the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production statistics on the MMS web site. Damage assessments will occur soon and I'll post that as soon as it becomes available. Note that "rigs" means drilling rigs and MMCF/D means Million cubic feet per day. The districts are named for the location of the MMS office that handles that area of the Gulf.

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2008/press0904.htm

I will be returning home today. Reports are that the local grocery and gas stores are open along with some of the fast food emporiums.

The NOLa Evacuees Return - The Real Story

I mentioned the rumor the other day about the return policy for evacuees. Here is a link for the full story.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1220505762325680.xml&coll=1

Gustav Thursday

Still in Alabama. My son made the run back yesterday. Traffic wasn't as bad as expected. However, he reports that the grocery stores and gas stations are still closed. Not enough employees have returned to allow them to open. He spent the night at my house as I had power and he didn't. Life could still be a little on the basic side so we are going to hang here until tomorrow.

The government did a good job on the evacuation plans but leave the return up to chance.

Oldest grandson baked a cake yesterday afternoon in honor of our 30th anniversary. Yeah, it was a mix but its the thought that counts. He has discovered an interest in the culinary arts at the age of 11. His sense of taste is amazing. He can dissect the ingredients in a dish by smelling and tasting. When we went to Boston, he was able to tell the difference between Cod and Haddock after it was all mixed up together in Fish and Chips. All in all, pretty amazing for a kid who only ate chicken nuggets as a young'un.

In Temporary Exile

We finally heard last night that Plaquemines Parish would open the north end on Wednesday at 0600. BUT, many homes had no power, there was no gas and no groceries. Be prepared to camp out for a few days. Feeder bands from Gustav were still causing tornados on Tuesday.

PE heard through a reliable source that the politicos wanted to keep the parishes (Orleans, Jeffeson and Plaquemines) closed for a few more days but public pressure was building to allow residents to return. The State Police were turning people back but many of those people had run out of money and had no place to go. They were forming Hoovervilles along the interstate. St Charles Parish was the first to open and the others followed suit soon after.

My son is heading back today and will camp out at his office if necessary. PE will stay put with the rest of the group until the weekend. We do not want to be in the middle of the return traffic. They evacuated using contraflow but they will only have the normal side of the intestate when they return.

Cabin Fever Sets In

It's Tuesday and we await word on when we will be allowed to return home. Based upon the reported damage, we should be able to return soon but the politicos seem to be holding off for some reason. My son is anxious to get his staff for his advertising agency back to work and finishing outstanding contracts. My wife has decided to re-open her employment office on Monday and I am waiting to hear what the Great Yellow Pectin wants to do. If they don't open up for returns tomorrow, there will be 2 million pissed off people. I know I have power at my house (Call the answering machine. If it picks up, you have power.) Reports from Bro-in-law is that damage is very slight and NO FLOODING! For comparison, we were allowed to return to Plaquemines Parish on September 11 after Katrina. Damage was much worse then. I don't know why they haven't given the word already.

The boys are getting antsy and the Rents have taken them out to the outlet mall. If we don't get back soon, There Will be Blood.

Thoughts on Gustav and Hurricane Evacuations

We're now waiting for the all clear so we can return and put our house back in order. Ground truth report says no flooding but they will keep us out in order to let Entergy fix the power and to clean up any downed trees. Traffic on the way back will be a bitch. Bobby Jindal said 2,000,000 people evacuated in the face of Gustav - the largest evac in Louisiana history.

Bobby was impressive. He would reel of facts and figures giving the general impression that he had a plan, they were following the plan and that he had a handle on everything that was going on. Great inter-state cooperation with medical needs people being evacuated by C 130 to neighbor states. Hundreds of buses were standing by along with Amtrack trains to evacuate those with no transportation. Homeland Security and FEMA were there next to him lending pro-active support but following his lead. Mayor Nagin stood by with a look that he was relieved not to have to worry about the details. Bobby will make a great President one day.

The one political glitch is Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard ranting that Mississippi wouldn't allow evacuees to travel east on I-10 because it would have caused an inconvenience to the Biloxi casinos. Of course, his family was in the traffic jam forced to go north so he probably had a personal dog in the fight.

Personally, I left about 24 hours before my mental deadline (when the hurricane crosses an imaginary line between the Yucatan and Cuba) but I had to in order to avoid the rush. Going to the FloraBama area was the next best option to going north since we had no hotel reservations. I was glad to see the thing stay to the west. The bottom line is the homestead seems to have survived and the family is safe. That's the best result. Other aggravations are minor in comparison.

30th Anniversary and Max

Today is the 30th anniversary of my marriage to the wonderful woman who became my mate. It is the second time we have spent it on a hurricane evacuation. Katrina was the first. Not very romantic but I hope the recent trip to France made up for it.

We often suspected that Max the Shih Tsu was abandoned during Katrina. His behavior last night confirmed it. We had tropical storm conditions in Alabama with wind and rain. Max was not happy and wouldn't stay in one place. He was upstairs and downstairs. He was scratching on all the bedroom doors. If you let him into the room, after a few minutes, he wanted to get out. When he laid down, he did it in a corner. It was like he needed to verify that he was not alone and didn't want his back exposed. It's daylight now and calmer. He will get to sleep. His humans won't.

Gustav Sunday

We're at the Fish Camp watching the progress of Gustav. It looks like it might not make Cat 5 again and the track is still the same. This place is 25 feet above mean low water and was built to post Andrew Miami building codes. We opted to stay even though we are under a Hurricane Warning because of the risk of getting on the road with all the other idiots. Looks like the closest approach will be tomorrow at 0800 hours. Fingers are crossed and hope we have a home to return to.

Hunkered Down in the Red Neck Riviera

I spent the third anniversary of Katrina packing up the family pictures, valuables and my guns in preparation for evacuation. I must have climbed the stairs 50 times as I hauled stuff up out of the reach of a potential flood. Gustav is aimed to send water onto the West Bank, flooding areas that stayed dry in Katrina and I hope the extra elevation of the second story will be some protection. Then we jumped into the car and headed to Alabama and hope that the storm keeps to the west of NOLa.

I fear this storm may be the final straw for some folks. The fear in the air is evident everywhere. I suspect some people will move away from the area even if they have no damage because living with the fear is just too draining.

Right now we are hunkered down with the son, daughter in law and the three grandsons and watching the news over the internet. We've done all we can do and now its a wait and see. And I'm wondering what Hanna will do.