So far, the Atlantic hurricane season has not sent storms across America's oil and natural gas fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico, sparing energy companies billions of dollars of losses, and consumers higher fuel costs.
The 2023 season, which runs through Nov. 30, has only produced three major hurricanes with winds above 111 mph out of six hurricanes among 20 named tropical storms.
Only one, Tropical Storm Harold, disrupted O&G operations at three refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, but just for a day. It was the biggest impact to the Gulf Coast oil industry.
GoM offshore ops account for 15% of U.S. crude oil production and 5% of the nation's natural gas production. About 50% of the country's refining capacity and natural gas processing plant capacity is located along the Gulf coast.
“I wouldn’t want to say the hurricane season is over, but it is waning,” said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist for DTN.
Between 2019-21, storms in the Gulf shut an annual average of 24M barrels of oil production, said Rystad's Colin White.
At an assumed price of $70 a barrel, that equals an average lost revenue per year of about $1.7B, according to White.
So far, no offshore production has been hit.
Meanwhile, last year's hurricane season was the first season since 2014 that left most offshore production unaffected, said Troy Vincent, senior oil market analyst for DTN. (Marine Link 10/19/23) US Gulf Coast Oil Patch Gets Lucky, So Far, In Busy (marinelink.com)
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