HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. oil producers scrambled on Monday to evacuate employees from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as the second major hurricane in two weeks was expected to hit offshore oil fields.
A potential tropical cyclone in the Caribbean is expected to rapidly strengthen over the warm waters of the Gulf and could become a major hurricane with winds of up to 115 mph (185 kph) by Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The storm, to be named Helen, could hit the United States as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, bringing “a risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging hurricane-force winds” to the northeastern Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Storm Track Attribution: LSEG
Oil companies BP (NYSE:), Chevron Oil and natural gas companies (NYSE:), Equinor, and Shell (LON:) have begun evacuating their offshore staff, and several have halted some production.
BP has halted oil and gas production at its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms and reduced output at two others, Argus and Atlantis. The company said it would lay off staff from those four platforms and a fifth platform called Mad Dog.
Chevron said it has begun evacuating all employees and shutting down production at its Blind Faith and Petronius offshore platforms.
Non-essential personnel are being evacuated from Anchor, Big Foot, Jack/St. Malo and Tahiti. Production remains at normal levels on those platforms, the company said.
Equinor said it was evacuating non-essential staff from its Titan platform, adding that production was not affected.
Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:) said in an online posting that it will implement safety measures “as appropriate” in its offshore operations. Talos Energy The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:) declined to comment on its preparations for the storm.
Shell said it had halted production at its Stones platform, reduced production at its Appomattox facility and halted some drilling. Non-essential staff were evacuated from the Mars, Olympus and Orsa offshore facilities. Shell said production at all three facilities continued.
“The system is expected to grow in size as it crosses the Gulf,” said Brad Reinhart, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. “Its high speed as it approaches the coast will likely push gusty winds inland into parts of the southeastern United States after it makes landfall.”