BP reports further hurricane impact
Hurricane damage continued to put a dent in the operations of BP today as the oil giant revealed that production had fallen for the second quarter in a row.
Daily output in the final three months of 2005 was predicted by BP to be around 4.01 million barrels of oil – down from 4.1 million barrels at the same stage of the previous year.
Destruction caused by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma during the summer in the Gulf of Mexico cost it around 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, BP said in a trading statement.
This was higher than the 135,000 barrels of oil a day lost to storm damage between July and September.
But the oil giant added that overall production in the fourth quarter was higher than the previous three months as rigs in the North Sea began operating again after being shut down for planned repairs.
In addition, BP was continuing to see more oil and gas flow from fields in its so-called “new profit centres” such as Russia.
