Oil companies prepare to return to the Gulf, where most production remains shut in

As Isaac rumbles slowly across Louisiana today, leaving floodwaters, downed trees and power outages in its wake, energy companies are preparing to resume operations in the Gulf of Mexico, The Houston Chronicle reports. Along the coast, refinery crews have begun to assess the damage to prepare to restart, too. BP says it will attempt flyover surveys of key facilities in the Gulf as weather permits, and then begin redeploying offshore personnel. Chevron says it has begun to deploy personnel to both onshore and offshore facilities to assess the impact of Hurricane Isaac, although it declined to comment on any possible impact to operations. And Shell announced that it expected to begin flyover inspections today in anticipation of restarting operations Friday. Ten Gulf Coast refineries with combined crude oil processing capacity of about 2.4 million barrels a day were offline or running at reduced rates as of Wednesday, according to the Oil Price Information Service. According to the latest report from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, 95% of oil production in the Gulf remained shut in as of this afternoon. About 73% of natural gas production is shut in.