OREANDA-NEWS. September 04, 2017. More US oil and natural gas producers in Texas are preparing for restart after shutting down because of Hurricane Harvey.

ExxonMobil's shale subsidiary XTO Energy, which had shut in production that was in the direct line of the storm, has crews assessing the impact to those operations and are beginning to resume production.

ExxonMobil joins ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil and others, who continue to assess their operations in the path of the hurricane and gradually ramp up output. The Texas Railroad Commission estimates that up to 500,000 b/d of Eagle Ford output remains off line. The basin produced 1.4mn b/d in August, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Oilfield services company Schlumberger is reopening key facilities that are deemed secure and ready while the bulk of its greater Houston-area facilities will stay closed through today. Yesterday, peer Baker Hughes began critical operations in the greater Houston area.

The latest US drilling rig count data did not reflect any disruption to activity. The count rose by three to 943 after four straight weeks of declines, but that was driven by activity in states out of Harvey's path.

New Mexico added the most, at three, followed by Alaska, which added two. Texas, which bore the brunt of Harvey, lost one. Oil-directed rigs held unchanged at 759, while those looking for gas rose by three to 183. The total is nearly double from a year prior as producers ramped up activity in the first half of this year.

In the offshore US Gulf of Mexico, ExxonMobil's Hoover and Galveston 209 platforms remain shut, and personnel are assessing operations.

"Systems are safe and operational at the Hadrian South subsea production system in the Gulf, and production startup operations are underway," it said.

Anadarko has returned personnel to all of its operated offshore Gulf facilities.

"Production is ongoing at all of our operated platforms with the exception of Nansen, Boomvang and Gunnison, which we anticipate restarting soon subject to third-party pipelines," it said.

Shell said crews are continuing to arrive to its Perdido platform to perform inspections, check operating systems, and prepare the spar for restart.

"Early inspections have not revealed any major damage to Perdido," it said.