Shell Offshore Inc. (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, conducted an initial flyover of their assets in the path of Hurricane Ida. During this initial flight, they observed damage to their West Delta-143 (WD-143) offshore facilities. When it is safe to do so, Shell will send personnel offshore to provide a closer inspection of these facilities to understand the full extent of the damage and the degree to which their production in the Gulf of Mexico will likely be impacted.
The WD-143 facilities serve as the transfer station for all production from the company’s assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals.
Their Perdido asset in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico was never disrupted by the hurricane, and floating production, storage and offloading vessel, the Turritella (also known as Stones) is currently back on line. All of Shell’s other offshore assets remain shut in and remain fully evacuated at this time. At the early phase of assessment and recovery, approximately 80% of Shell-operated production in the Gulf of Mexico remains offline.
In the initial flyover, Shell did not observe any visible structural damage to the rest of their offshore assets. When its’ possible to safely deploy personnel offshore to these assets, Shell will conduct additional inspections and work to restore production as soon as possible.
As Shell assess the impact of Hurricane Ida on their Upstream and Downstream businesses, the top priorities continue to be the protection and recovery of personnel and assets, the community and the environment.
