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Empresas y finanzas

Factbox: Gulf of Mexico oil & gas effects of weather


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tropical Depression Five moved northwest across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and was expected to hit eastern Louisiana as a tropical storm Thursday night, the National Hurricane Center said in a report Wednesday.

    Several oil and gas companies with operations in the Gulf of Mexico said they were monitoring the tropical disturbance, but most operations in the region remained unaffected.

    The U.S. Gulf of Mexico, home to about 30 percent of U.S. oil production, 11 percent of natural gas production, and more than 43 percent of U.S. refinery capacity, is often in the path of hurricanes.

    The computer weather models mostly agreed with the NHC forecast, though several projected the depression would make landfall in Mississippi instead of Louisiana.

    Forecasters said the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season could be the worst since 2005, when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma caused havoc in the Gulf Coast, damaging oil rigs and refineries and forcing sharp cuts in production.

    The hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.

    GULF OF MEXICO PRODUCTION AFFECTED

    * Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Wednesday it had received no company reports of oil or gas production cuts in the Gulf of Mexico due to weather threat. There also have been no reported full evacuations of platforms, the agency said.

    GULF OPERATIONS AFFECTED

    * BP Plc -- Suspended work on relief well aiming to bore into its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well; relief well delayed 2-3 days.

    * Transocean Ltd aims to move a rig and a drillship out of the path of a cluster of thunderstorms in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.

    * ENI SpA evacuating nonessential personnel from its Gulf of Mexico oil facilities.

    * BP Plc -- Evacuated nonessential personnel from its eight BP-operated facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

    * Enbridge evacuated some nonessential personnel from an offshore infrastructure attached to the Nautilus and Manta Ray pipeline systems

    * Anadarko Petroleum removed nonessential personnel from the key natural gas facility, Independence Hub, and Neptune oil and gas production facility

    (Reporting by Anna Driver, Janet McGurty, Eileen Moustakis, Bruce Nichols

    and Jeanine Prezioso)

    (Compiled by Rebekah Kebede, Janet McGurty and Bruce Nichols)