Production resumed at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 100,000-barrel-per-day Perdido deepwater hub in the US Gulf of Mexico, ending a day-long halt caused by an onshore pipeline leak. Perdido production returned to its usual capacity by late the following day, a Shell spokeswoman told Reuters.
Shell suspended output for a day, blaming a subsurface leak in Exxon Mobil Corp’s Hoover Offshore Oil Pipeline System (HOOPS), which carries oil from several offshore oilfields to the Quintana Terminal near Freeport, Texas.
But Exxon later said the HOOPS system was not responsible for the leak and that it was instead closed following a leak inside the US Department of Energy’s Bryan Mound terminal, an oil storage facility connected by several pipelines.
Todd Spitler, an Exxon spokesman, said: “The cause of the incident is under investigation,” but added that the HOOPS pipeline has resumed normal operations.
HOOPS also connects the Exxon-operated Hoover, Marshall and Madison offshore oil and gas fields. Production at the Exxon-operated Hoover platform totals about 3,000 barrels per day of liquids, according to Exxon.
Perdido is moored in some 8,000 feet of water about 200 miles (321.9 km) south of Galveston, Texas, and is a joint venture among Shell, BP Plc, Arclight Capital Partners and Chevron Corp.
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