With Hurricane Dean growing into “a monster, Category 5 storm”, the amount of shut-in hydrocarbon production in the Gulf of Mexico has doubled to 41,967 barrels of oil per day and 100 million cubic feet per day of gas.

While one-month NYMEX crude traded at $70.73 just before the Category 5 announcement, Gulf operators had by Tuesday evacuated 10 platforms — a heightened state of alert after a weekend respite let seven be reoccupied. And from three on Sunday, the number of deserted rigs stands at 24 after Monday, according to the Minerals Management Servicea's survey of oil companies.

While the count of evacuated platforms is just 1.2 percent of the 834 in the Gulf of Mexico, one quarter of the 101 jack-ups, semi-submersibles and tenders are now without crews.

The GoM is usually good for 7.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day and 1.3 million bpd.