**Gulf Coast Oil and Gas Drilling Shuts Down Ahead of Gustav**

[Barack_America]

Predicted to be shutdown all of next week.

That should be a big boost to the GOP's "Drill Here, Drill Now"-themed convention, no?

:rofl:

UPDATE: MMS:US Gulf Producers Shut In 77% Oil, 37% Gas Output

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Energy producers have shut in approximately 77% of oil output and 37% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, as the industry shutters its activities ahead of the extremely powerful Hurricane Gustav, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said Saturday.

Most of the shut-in production is unlikely to return before the end of next week.

The agency said personnel have been evacuated from a total of 223 production platforms, equivalent to 31.1% of the 717 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the major producers, including the two largest - Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) and BP PLC (BP) have announced a total halt to offshore operations ahead of Gustav's arrival in the region. Others, including Chevron Corp. (CVX), have partially cut production linked to platforms shut down by other producers.

Crews from 45 rigs have also been evacuated, as of 12:30 a.m. EDT, equivalent to 37.2% of the 121 rigs currently operating in the Gulf.

According to the report, nearly 1 million barrels of daily oil production is now shut down. The last time this happened was in November 2005, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In addition, 2.75 billion cubic feet of daily natural gas production is now shut down.

More:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200808301801DOWJONESDJONLINE000478_FORTUNE5.htm


For your comparison:

The location of oil rigs/platforms in the Gulf of Mexico (with Rita's and Katrina's listed)



The projected path of Hurricane Gustav


Uh oh. ;)

Edited: Whoa, what a typo!! lol