Rebuilding service facilities on the US Gulf Coast following hurricanes Rita and Katrina presented enormous challenges and, at the same time, opened the door for improvement. Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall in southeastern Louisiana in August of 2005, was followed barely a month later by Hurricane Rita, another Category 3 storm. The catastrophic storms left more than USD95 billion damage in their wake. Many of the facilities that serve offshore operations in the Gulf from locations in Port Fourchon, Venice, and Cameron, La., were annihilated. So although offshore operations were able to resume shortly after Rita passed through, the onshore facilities that provide the fluids necessary for deepwater drilling were not so fortunate.
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