Barry caused 330,000 barrel drop in ...

The evacuation of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Barry caused oil production there to fall more than 330,000 barrels in July, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

The agency estimates more than 280 platforms were evacuated, causing 70 percent of Gulf oil wells to be shut in.

“This hurricane-related decrease was the largest decline in monthly crude oil production in more than a decade,” the EIA said.

An increase in other U.S. oil producing regions mitigated some of the fallout, resulting in a national drop of 276,000 barrels in July.

The last time the United States experienced such a large drop was during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in September 2008 when national oil production fell off by more than 1 million barrels a day.