The evacuation of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Barry caused oil production there to fall more than 330,000 barrels in July, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.
As The Houston Chronicle reports, the agency estimates more than 280 platforms were evacuated, causing 70% of Gulf oil wells to be shut-in.
“This hurricane-related decrease was the largest decline in monthly crude oil production in more than a decade,” the EIA said. An increase in other U.S. oil-producing regions mitigated some of the fallout, resulting in a national drop of 276,000 barrels in July.
The last time the U.S. experienced such a large drop was in September 2009, during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. At that time, national oil production fell by more than 1 million barrels a day. Read the full story.
