[HoustonCurmudgeon]

OK this doesn't mean things are that bad. Production platforms are the problem and they are OK. DRILLING rigs (NOT OIL RIGS whatever in the hell they are) are looking for new production. Most holes are dry and when they hit it can take months or years to come on line. This will delay some new production a year or more down the road but doesn't mean a damn thing to current production.

[VRWCTexan]

What is your source basis of stating that the GOM production platforms are (all?) OK? - I've personally seen photos just today of at least one TLP that is flipped.

[thackney]

Offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, no oil was being produced as of Monday afternoon, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said. Before Hurricane Katrina, producers typically pumped about 1.5 million barrels of crude a day.

Also remaining shut in was 7.84 billion cubic feet of gas, representing about 78 percent of daily production. Even before Rita, officials had been warning it would take months to get production back up to normal.

"We think the market's underestimating the natural gas impact here," David Pursell, an energy analyst with Pickering Energy Partners in Houston. Companies are usually building up the natural gas stockpiles at this time of year to prepare for the winter, when daily use outstrips daily production.

For the next month, equipment repairs instead will be a major concern for many in the oil and gas business.

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=25593