BSEE

Texas A&M’s Engineering Experiment Station will have a budget of up to $40 million over 5 years to operate and maintain the OESI.

On 20 April 2010, a kick and blowout in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a series of explosions that killed 11 people and started an environmental disaster. Now, 11 years later, government and industry continue the drive to improve safety.

Evacuations in the GOM began on Monday, but so far nearly 50% of current oil production and 55% of natural gas production in the region is shut-in due to Tropical Storm Zeta.

Forty-four percent of oil production and 30% of natural gas production remain shut in as operators return workers to offshore platforms. Production from undamaged facilities are being brought back online once all standard checks are completed. Facilities with damage may take longer to bring back up.

Hurricane Delta leads to shut-ins of 92% oil and 60% gas production in GOM as landfall is expected today.

GOM production shut-ins increased to 80% of the oil and 49% of natural gas. Hurricane Delta weakened from a category 4 storm to a category 2 storm on Wednesday and is expected reach the US Gulf later in the week.

Hurricane Delta is expected to hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday and reach the US Gulf later in the week. Twenty-nine percent of the current oil production and 9% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is shut in.

The research will focus on potential policy changes that could help increase oil and gas production from deepwater infrastructure already in place in the Gulf of Mexico to reduce stranded assets.

Personnel are returning to platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Sally was downgraded to a tropical depression late Wednesday, but the threat of another major hurricane remains as a tropical storm may form in the Gulf of Mexico today.

BSEE said details of the policy change will come later this year.