Oil companies racing back to Gulf following Ida

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil companies were quickly restoring Gulf of Mexico production shut by Tropical Storm Ida, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said on Wednesday.

Shut oil production fell on Wednesday to 401,120 barrels, or 30.86 percent of the 1.3 million barrels that come out of the Gulf daily, the MMS said. Producers have restarted 12.23 percent of oil output since Tuesday.

All but 7.6 percent of the 7.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas taken daily from the Gulf was back on-line Wednesday, the MMS said. A total of 532 million cubic feet per day remained shut. On Tuesday, 27.96 percent was offline.

Companies had begun shutting production on Sunday ahead of Ida, which was then a hurricane, and the first storm in this year to threaten production platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf, home to 25 percent of U.S. domestically produced oil and 15 percent of natural gas.

Ida weakened and made landfall on Tuesday but workers flying back to offshore platforms were having to contend with rough seas, that at the storm's height, disrupted shipping across the northern Gulf of Mexico.

"Seas are down from what they were at the storm's passage," said Jim Shugart, executive vice president at ERA Helicopters. "But they're still pretty rough out there because winds were high. Today's better. We should be through by end of the day."

The giant Independence Hub, which can process 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily had resumed partial production by Wednesday morning, said owner Enterprise Products Partners.

The giant Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which can offload 1 million barrels per in foreign crude, said it was ready to receive the giant crude carriers, but rough seas made it impossible for the ships to dock.

Crude oil prices added more than a dollar earlier in the week because of storm disruptions from Ida, but were soaring on Wednesday due to sliding dollar and China's demand for oil.

The Gulf's largest producers BP, Exxon, Shell and Chevron have said they saw little damage to offshore platforms during initial inspections on Tuesday.

Exxon said on Tuesday its Mobile Bay operations sustained minimal impact from the storm.

(Writing by Erwin Seba; Reporting by Joshua Schneyer, Edward McAllister, Eileen Moustakis, Scott Disavino in New York; Janet McGurty in Toronto; Bruce Nichols, Kristen Hays and Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing by Marguerita Choy)