Sept 16 (Reuters) - More than 12% of crude production

and 16% of natural gas output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were

offline in the aftermath of Hurricane Francine, the U.S. Bureau

of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Monday.

There were 213,204 barrels per day of oil and 298 million

cubic feet of natural gas still offline after Francine hit the

coast last week.

The hurricane caused U.S. offshore oil and gas producers to

lose 2.37 million barrels of oil and 4.93 billion cubic feet of

gas due to shut-ins that began last week.

Oil and gas producers began shutting in offshore

production a week ago, as

Francine moved through

the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) said on Monday it was working to

safely

restart

operations at its Hoover offshore platform in the Gulf.

Meanwhile, Chevron also redeployed all personnel to

their Gulf facilities and resumed production.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of all

domestic oil production and 2% of natural gas output, according

to federal data.