El Paso says some offshore gas flow returns
NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - El Paso Corp. (EP.N) said on Thursday a small amount of natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico has returned after being shut by Hurricane Gustav.
El Paso said on Sept. 1 that Gustav had interrupted 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas flows.
On Thursday about 100 million cubic feet per day of output on the Southern Natural Gas system had returned, leaving 860 million cubic feet per day still shut in.
"We're starting to see production impacts diminished," said spokesman Richard Wheatley.
On the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, which had about 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas shut in after Gustav, an unspecified amount of output had returned by Thursday, the company said.
Strong demand for boats to carry crews and equipment to offshore operations have been one of the factors slowing the return of gas production, Wheatley said.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
