Shell to Resume its Speedily Recovering Ida-Hit Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil Facility in November

The world’s leading petrochemical major and the USA’s largest crude oil producer, Shell, is expecting to restart its Mars and Ursa oil and gas facilities in the first half of November which is ahead of the anticipated revival time (in the start of 2022) owing to the ramped-up recovery operations undergoing in the Mars Corridor. The restart of the plant operations is subject to the completion of repair activities, at the West Delta 143 transfer facility, due in the November first half, which will be responsible for transferring oil and gas for processing at offshore terminals from three major fields.

Shell was one of the most impacted oil producers from the hurricane Ida that pummelled through the Gulf of Mexico in late August idling millions of crude oil barrels in the region. The Ursa and Mars facilities producing 100,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil per day, respectively, had been ceased down post major disruptions caused by Ida. The sour crude produced from these fields are comparable to the OPEC supplied crude and are extensively used by the USA and Asia’s oil refiners. The damage to these facilities had slumbered exports and raised crude oil prices in the country.

Crude oil is a hydrocarbon-rich fuel that is extracted from underground reservoirs by the drilling process. The applications of crude oil form the very basis of the industrial and economic growth as it is responsible for fuelling the transportation sector, supplying energy for electricity, and providing raw materials to produce plastics and other petrochemical products.

As per ChemAnalyst, the damage to around three-quarters of the oil facilities located at the Gulf of Mexico by Ida landfall had brought the USA’s oil refinery sector on the backfoot at the competitive scale. The restart of major Shell facilities is expected to give a strong push to the still-recovering USA refinery sector by boosting production, processing, and supply of crude oil to the national and international markets. The Shell oil fields resurrection is also expected to bring a huge relief to the record-breaking crude oil prices which have become a national crisis lately.