Nearly a quarter of US Gulf oil remains shut in

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Nearly a quarter of US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut in following Hurricane Helene, a government agency said on Friday.

The following table shows the disruptions to US Gulf production that were caused by Helene, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

	Total	% of US Gulf
Oil, bbl/day	427,000	24.39%
Gas, million cubic feet/day	343	18.46%

Source: BSEE

	Total	% of US Gulf
Platforms evacuated	9	2.43%
Rigs evacuated	0	0%

Source: BSEE

Helene has weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall on Thursday night as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the northwestern coast of Florida.

Since making landfall, the storm has knocked out power to millions, caused floods and produced record storm surges.

It set new all-time tide gauge records in the Tampa Bay area, a hub for the fertilizer industry, according to the meteorological firm AccuWeather.

Overall damage could be in the tens of billions of dollars, AccuWeather said.

Such widespread power outages and floods will lower demand for plastics and chemicals. Afterwards, repairs should boost demand for paints, coatings and other plastics and chemicals used in construction.