BHP Billiton Returns Workers to Gulf of Mexico Oil Platforms

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd., Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, returned workers to its Neptune and Shenzi-Genghis Khan oil projects in the Gulf of Mexico as it prepares to resume operations following Hurricane Ike.

``We've repopulated both the Neptune and Shenzi operations,'' said Samantha Evans, a spokeswoman for Melbourne- based BHP Billiton. ``We haven't found anything to prevent a gradual restart'' of the ventures, she said by telephone.

Neptune, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast, has a capacity of 50,000 barrels a day of oil and 50 million cubic feet a day of gas. Production from Genghis Khan started last October and is due to be supplemented by the start- up of Shenzi by the middle of next year.

Marathon Oil Co., Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Repsol YPF SA's Maxus (U.S.) Exploration Co. unit own stakes in Neptune, while Hess Corp. and Repsol own stakes in Genghis Khan and Shenzi.

Evans said she couldn't comment on the damage at the BP Plc-operated Mad Dog oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico. London-based BP said Sept. 15 that the drilling derrick aboard the platform was toppled by a direct hit from Ike and now rests on the ocean floor.

The Mad Dog platform floats in 4,420 feet (1,350 meters) of water and began production in 2005, according to the U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service. BHP owns 23.9 percent of Mad Dog, while BP has 60.5 percent and Chevron Corp. the rest.

About a quarter of U.S. oil output, or 1.26 million barrels of oil a day, is shuttered because of Ike, which tore through Texas on Sept. 13.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net