Shale offsets many U.S. hurricane issues

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- Strong growth in onshore U.S. oil and gas production means fewer problems from hurricanes, the analytical arm of the U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday.

Sunday marked the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. As of Wednesday, there are no cyclones reported in the Atlantic Ocean, though Tropical Storm Boris is headed north from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico at a rate of 5 miles per hour.

Though offshore oil and gas installations may be shut in by any major storm in the Atlantic, EIA said inland production could make up for any shortfall.

"The effect of hurricanes on oil and natural gas production has been reduced in part by an increasing portion of U.S. production coming from inland basins such as the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota, the Williston Basin in Montana, and the Marcellus Shale play in the Appalachian Basin," it said Wednesday.

Oil and gas production rates in the United States are setting records because of shale developments.

More than half of the daily production from the Gulf of Mexico was shut down when Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana coast in 2005. Last year, Tropical Storm Andrea was the only named storm to make landfall and it didn't cause any disruptions to crude oil or natural gas production, EIA said.