NEW ORLEANS – Federal officials say offshore oil and gas workers in the Gulf of Mexico are going back to platforms and rigs that had been evacuated because of Tropical Storm Lee.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement said Monday in a news release that 232 production platforms and 24 rigs had been evacuated. That meant about 38 percent of the total 617 manned platforms and 33 percent of the 70 drilling rigs operating in the Gulf were evacuated.
BOEMRE said the evacuations had shut in 61 percent of the oil production and 46 percent of the natural gas production in the Gulf.
The rigs and platforms will be inspected for damage and then brought back online.
