More than half the daily crude production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remained offline on Tuesday in the wake of Hurricane Barry, the U.S. drilling regulator said, as most oil companies were re-staffing facilities to resume production.
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, or 58% of the region's total, and 1.4 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of natural gas output remained shut.
BSEE also said 171 production platforms, or 26%, have not resumed operating, down from 267 platforms on Monday.
Since July 10, 7.8 million barrels of oil, or nearly two-thirds of the United States daily oil production, has been lost from Barry, which has become a post-tropical cyclone and was moving over eastern Missouri on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)