The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has estimated that almost 30% of Gulf of Mexico oil activities are now shut-in as the body’s Hurricane Response Team continues to monitor the development of Hurricane Helene.

In a statement released via its website, it also said almost 17% of the current natural gas production in the offshore region has been closed down.

It added that as of Wednesday evening, personnel from a total of 17 production platforms had been evacuated, or 4.5% of the total manned platforms in the area. It revealed that a total of three rigs have now been moved out of Hurricane Helene’s path.

The organisation, which oversees improving safety and ensuring environmental protection relating to the offshore energy industry, said it will “work with offshore operators and other state and federal agencies until operations return to normal and the hurricane is no longer a threat to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities”.

It added that once the storm has passed “facilities will be inspected [and] once all standard checks have been completed, production from undamaged facilities will be brought back online immediately. Facilities sustaining damage may take longer to bring back online.”

Offshore Technology reported this week that several US oil companies were working to evacuate their staff from oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico due to a second major hurricane forecast in two weeks.

Even after worst of Hurricane Francine passed in early September, almost a fifth of the oil production in the region was still out of action, amounting to almost 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) of output.

According to several US media reports, Francine’s impact resulted in cumulative losses of well over two million barrels of oil and more than 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas, citing industry reports.