The Atlantic hurricane season was more active than usual in 2024, disrupting oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and markets connected to the region, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Dec. 17.
“Energy impacts from hurricanes this season were most notable in electricity markets, although Hurricanes Francine, Helene and Rafael forced some oil and natural gas production from fields in the Gulf of Mexico to be shut in,” the EIA wrote in a report on its website.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. In 2024, the region saw 18 named storms, with five classified as major hurricanes with windspeeds greater than 110 mph. An average hurricane season has 14 named storms and three major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
While some storms caused severe damage within the continental U.S., most of the outages to the oil and gas infrastructure were short-lived, resulting primarily in platform evacuations and shut-in production from the Gulf.
The EIA estimated unplanned outages of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico averaged 295,000 bbl/d in September and 110,000 bbl/d in November, accounting for 16% and 5% respectively of total crude oil production from U.S. Gulf of Mexico waters in those months.
Natural gas production outages in the Gulf averaged 200 MMcf/d in September and 70 MMcf/d in November, accounting for 11% and 3% respectively of total natural gas production in the U.S.’ Gulf areas, the EIA found.