U.s. offshore oil producer by restarting ops post-Don (Reuters)

HOUSTON (Reuters)-U.S. offshore oil and natural gas producers are restarting production operations along with Don tropical storm over, data from the energy regulators of the Gulf of Mexico showed on Sunday.

U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the 6 percent, or 84.072 barrels per day oil production remained in line, down 4.9 percent from Saturday.

BOEM also said the 3.5 percent of daily production of natural gas, or down 186 million cubic meters of natgas, remained closed, 3.1 percentage points from Saturday.

Among those who had restarted closed all production was Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which was closed and completely evacuated six platforms in the Gulf.

"Everything is back up and running," said spokesman Anadarko John Christiansen.

BOEM statistics were based on reports from 17 companies Sunday, the Agency said.

Some manufacturers, including Shell Oil Co., has yet to report publicly whether they had restarted the production.

Chevron Corp. said Sunday it had restarted oil and gas production closed for storm and Gulf operations was reshuffles. The company has never disclosed what exit was closed or how many workers were evacuated.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it was returning workers evacuated for operations in the Gulf, but about 8,000 barrels per day of oil and 50 million cubic meters per day of natural gas production has remained closed.

Don was the first threat to energy infrastructure in the Gulf hurricane season 2011, but the path of the storm came nowhere close to higher concentrations of platforms for oil and natural gas.

A system of movement westward-weather about 575 miles east of the Leeward Islands had a "close to 100 percent" chance of becoming a tropical cyclone over the next two days, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. This system will be named Emily strengthens its position in a storm or a hurricane.

Daily production in the Gulf is about 1.4 million barrels of oil and to 5.2 billion cubic feet of natgas, according to figures BOEM.

Don hit shore late on Friday, 40 miles south of Corpus Christi and quickly dissipated.

The three major refiners with plants in Corpus Christi-Valero Energy Corp, Flint Hills resources and Citgo Petroleum Corp.-Don breaks not reported.

Overall, the Gulf represents 30 percent of u.s. oil production and 12% of natural gas, according to BOEM. The Gulf Coast is also home to 40 per cent of United States refining capacity and 30 percent of the capacity of the treatment plant to natural gas.

(Edited by Dale Hudson)

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Orders of China offshore oil risks review after spill (AP)

SHANGHAI – China's Ocean Administration ordered oil companies operating offshore wells to assess risks of incidents along its eastern coast two falls in a field operated by American energy giant ConocoPhillips.

Oceanic State Administration issued a warning Friday, saying the offshore petroleum producers should investigate thoroughly all risks, review their contingency plans and reassess the impact of their operations.

Off-shore operators should learn from the incident and "comprehensively and deeply investigate the risks of oil spill and rectify them," he said.

The falls, which covered 840 square kilometres (324 square miles) in the field of Penglai 19-3 oil in Bohai Bay, drew criticism from environmentalists and local media over the potential damage to the environment and the apparent delay in informing the public.

But China ConocoPhillips, which manages seven platforms of production in the area of Bohai Penglai, defended reply, saying responded quickly to the loss of both and informed the authorities the day that they were.

Earlier this week, Houston-based ConocoPhillips and its Chinese partners in State-owned CNOOC Ltd., said they stopped both the losses and the cleanup work was almost finished.

The delay in announcing the details of the leak, which was first noticed on 4 June, was in part due to the difficulty of tracing the seepage from a natural fault, they said, noting that such losses are rare and had not been seen before in the Bohai Sea.

The Oceanic Administration ordered operators of offshore platform to assess risks from injection water in oil tanks. Losses last month occurred when that work was underway.

ConocoPhillips said it had suspended the injection of water and drilling until it ends its investigation and would change its operational practices to prevent the recurrence of this problem.

State Oceanic Administration said 3,000 metres (3,300 feet) of arms and other equipment were deployed to help clean up the spill.

The oilfield Penglai 19-3, largest field off China, has been jointly developed by China ConocoPhillips and CNOOC Ltd. The U.S. partner holds 49 percent of the field and its operator, while the Chinese partner has 51 percent.

The spill has raised concern about the potential long-term impact on the fishing industry was very active in the area.

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