2 Pilots Die As Copter Hits Gulf Rig; Pemex Cuts Production

Two helicopter pilots died Sunday as Mexico's state oil company Pemex tried to evacuate some of the 15,000 workers believed at risk on drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from the approach of Hurricane Emily's 150-mph winds aimed at the Yucatan Peninsula.


Hurricane Emily's course across the Gulf of Mexico puts it directly in the path of rigs operated by the government of Mexico's Pemex oil company. Pemex said the company will close 63 wells and halt production of some 480,000 barrels of oil per day. The storm was 195 miles east of the Cozumel resort on the Yucatan Peninsula late Sunday afternoon.
Joe Shea/The American Reporter

The two men on a state-owned helicopter were the year's first casualties of hurricane-force winds generated by Emily and her predecessor Hurricane Dennis. The Gulf rig ThunderHorse lost its footing and collapsed on one side, listing it at a dangerous angle into the Gulf's stormy waters during Dennis, but its owners said the hurricane was not responsible for the problem.

Meanwhile, the price of oil, which fell last week from near-record highs, will likely be driven higher Monday as challenges to production in the Gulf are weighed against the probability of a busy hurricane season.

One appeal of the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone is the more tranquil waters of the Gulf Of Guinea off West Africa, which rarely record fierce storms like those that hit the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. officials expect to import as much as 25 percent of the nation's domestic oil needs from West Africa by 2010. The JDZ is said to hold as much as 14 billion barrels of crude, and some 15 percent of that is controlled by the ERHC, which has partnered with Noble Energy in Block 4 and Pioneer Natural Resources in Blocks 2 and 3.