EPL provides post-Hurricane Rita operational update
  by: OilOnline
  Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Energy Partners, Ltd. has issued an operational update on its damage assessment and recovery in the wake of Hurricane Rita. The Company has completed an initial assessment of its operated platforms and rigs and indications are that EPL's facilities suffered only minor damage and its rigs under contract are in their pre-storm locations. The Company also provided further details on its production outlook and insurance coverage.

EPL safely evacuated all offshore personnel prior to Hurricane Rita. The initial flyovers, boat inspections, and manning of platforms to assess damage to the Company's operations in its Western, Central, Eastern and onshore areas were completed earlier today. All producing structures and facilities appeared intact with only minor damage due to Hurricane Rita.

In the Western area of EPL's Gulf of Mexico Shelf operations, the Company has surveyed fields representing a majority of its operated production and found no significant structural damage. The Company has begun restarting production from its fields in the Western area, and in the coming days expects to address any further issues in re-establishing pre-storm production levels.

In EPL's Central area, the Company's main producing assets appear to have sustained only minimal damage. EPL expects to restore the majority of production from the Central area in the next several days, with production expected to return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels by mid October as third party pipeline issues are resolved.

In the Eastern area, EPL has identified no significant incremental damage from Hurricane Rita. The Company is returning temporary quarters barges to the East Bay field that had been placed there to replace the crew quarters that were lost to Hurricane Katrina. Work is proceeding to restore the field to full production, subject to third party transportation and processing constraints downstream from the field. Production in the Eastern area had not re-started post Hurricane Katrina, and the Company said it is continuing to work on a timeline to restore production from the East Bay field.

In the Company's onshore South Louisiana operations, producing fields and structures sustained minimal damage, mainly associated with high water, and production is expected to return to pre-storm levels in the next several days.

Prior to shut-ins for Hurricane Rita, EPL's production had ramped up to nearly 60% of its production capacity of approximately 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day prior to Hurricane Katrina. At the current time, the Company is developing a timeline, contingent upon third party transportation arrangements, to fully restore production across its entire operations. EPL expects to issue an update on production guidance for the remainder of 2005 in the coming weeks.