HOUSTON — Federal officials say it appears Hurricane Ike destroyed a number of production platforms and damaged some of the pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Lars Herbst, regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, said today that flyovers revealed that at least 10 production platforms were destroyed by the storm.

Herbst stressed the assessments were preliminary, but the damage appeared far worse than that caused by Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago.

Specifics about the size and production capacity of the destroyed platforms were not immediately available.

There are about 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf, including 717 with full-time staffs aboard.

The MMS says Hurricane Katrina destroyed 44 platforms three years ago, and soon after Hurricane Rita destroyed 64.