Hurricanes to disrupt more oil output, EIA says (by Myra P. Saefong)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico may experience disruptions from the Atlantic hurricane season that are worse than last year, according to a report Tuesday from the Energy Information Administration. For this year's storm season, results of an EIA simulation indicate an 80% probability of offshore crude oil or natural gas output seeing an equal or bigger shut-in to last year. Based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's prediction of 12 to 18 named storms, including 6 to 10 hurricanes, EIA estimates Gulf output shut-ins of 19 million barrels of crude oil and 53 billion cubic feet of natural gas for the 2011 season, compared with about 4.3 billion barrels of crude and 8.5 BCF of natural gas last season.