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Lili Hits Offshore Hard; Platforms Register 150 mph Winds, 30-Foot Swells, NGI Reports.


Business Editors/Energy Writers

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2002

Hurricane Lili This article is about the Atlantic hurricane in 2002. For other storms of the same name, see Hurricane Lili (disambiguation)
Hurricane Lili was a powerful hurricane during the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season that caused damage across the Caribbean and into Louisiana.
 carried a Category 4 punch when it passed over the oil and gas production area of the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico
Golfo de Mexico

Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east
, and damage reports were starting to come in Friday, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 a report in Natural Gas Intelligence newsletter.

Despite losing strength before reaching shore, Lili apparently remained quite powerful as she passed over some offshore exploration and production equipment early Thursday morning. BP spokesman Larry Thomas said measurement equipment on the company's offshore production facilities registered 150 mph winds from the hurricane on Thursday.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is a deepwater drilling contractor which provides drilling services to the energy industry. The company's headquarters are located in Houston, Texas, but they have offices in Louisiana, Africa, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Scotland, Singapore, and  Inc. said Friday that Lili ripped its semisubmersible sem·i·sub·mers·i·ble  
n.
A seagoing, self-propelled barge that rides at anchor, stands on partially submerged vertical legs on submerged pontoons, and serves as living quarters and a base of operations in offshore drilling.
 drilling unit, Ocean Lexington, from its moorings and blew the drilling rig 45 miles before it grounded in 35 feet of water offshore Louisiana.

BP's Thomas said the storm was still a Category 4 hurricane when it was passing over a lot of deepwater exploration and production equipment and some of the most intense winds reached older shelf production facilities. Producers and pipelines, unable to send out planes until this morning, were just beginning damage assessments.

BP, Shell and other producers have said they hoped to be able to resume production sometime Friday, although that may not be possible for units in the direct path of the storm.

"Our sensors on buoys and platforms showed some readings of 150 mph winds and 30-foot swells and I heard rumors that others had even higher readings," said Thomas. "Although the storm had gone down to a Category 2 when it reached the coast, it had been much stronger offshore. We certainly bore the brunt of it. I think you'll start seeing reports of at least some damage."

"This was not a normal storm," said Thomas. "It was a large and powerful storm when it was in the heart of the offshore industry. The bulk of our platforms are within about 60 miles from shore. However, when they were saying (the Category 4) storm was 95 miles off they were calculating from the eye. There were high winds much closer in."

Thomas said many shelf platforms are 30-40 years old. "The newer stuff, such as the semisubmersibles and spars are designed to weather this type of a storm, whereas some of the Shelf platforms are older and (weaker)."

Thomas said BP plans to return the bulk of its personnel back out today and will be doing damage assessments throughout the day before restarting any production. "We are dependent upon a lot of different factors. Our employees are scattered Scattered

Used for listed equity securities. Unconcentrated buy or sell interest.
 all about and we have to get them all back out. A lot of them live in the Louisiana area, so it won't happen quickly. We also can't produce unless we have pipelines operating and they are all inspecting their systems."

CMS (1) See content management system and color management system.

(2) (Conversational Monitor System) Software that provides interactive communications for IBM's VM operating system.
 Trunkline spokesman John Barnett John Barnett (1802—16 April 1890) was an English composer and writer on music. Life
Barnett was the eldest son of a Prussian Jew named Bernhard Beer, who changed his surname on settling in England as a jeweller.
 said the SeaRobin and Terrebonne offshore gathering systems are being inspected but still are not transporting any production. "From what I've heard, it probably won't be any different until tomorrow. We need to get out there and inspect facilities and the producers still need to inspect rigs and report back. Keep in mind, there's also no power right now in Louisiana."

SeaRobin has a total capacity of 1 Bcf/d and Terrebonne has a capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d.

Shell's said its Gulf of Mexico staff began returning to facilities this morning and following damage assessments and safety checks, production in the Gulf of Mexico will be gradually increasing over the weekend.

As of Thursday the Minerals Management Service (MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) An enhanced transmission service that enables graphics, video clips and sound files to be transmitted via cellphones. Developed as part of the 3GPP project, MMS phones are generally backward compatible with SMS and EMS. ) said nearly 60 Bcf of natural gas and 10 million barrels of oil was unavailable for U.S. consumption from the Outer Continental Shelf In the federal United States, the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) consists of the submerged lands, subsoil, and seabed, lying between the seaward extent of the States' jurisdiction and the seaward extent of Federal jurisdiction.  in the Gulf of Mexico because of shut-ins due to Hurricanes Isidore and Lili, up to that point.

Hurricane Andrew This article is about the 1992 hurricane; there was also a Tropical Storm Andrew during the 1986 Atlantic hurricane season.

Hurricane Andrew is the second-most-destructive hurricane in U.S. history, and the last of three Category 5 hurricanes that made U.S.
, a notch up from Lili at category 5, caused over a Billion dollars worth of damage when it swept through the Gulf on a different trajectory in 1992.

To read other industry information and prices, please sign up for a free trial at http://intelligencepress.com/. You will have four weeks free access to Natural Gas Intelligence, NGI's Daily Gas Price Index and NGI's Power Market Today, with price data, news archive searching and graphing capabilities.

The publications of Intelligence Press Inc., have been tracking the natural gas and related power market for the past 20 years. IP also is hosting the 17th annual GasMart/Power industry meeting in New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded  May 5-7, 2003. Go to www.gasmart.com for further information.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2002, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Geographic Code:0GULF
Date:Oct 4, 2002
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