Sept 23 – U.S. oil producers on Monday were scrambling to evacuate staff from Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms as forecasters predicted the second major hurricane in two weeks could tear through offshore oil producing fields.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a potential Tropical Cyclone System Nine near the western tip of Cuba was expected to develop into a hurricane on Wednesday and intensify in the next 72 hours as it moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
It could become a major hurricane when it reaches the northeastern Gulf Coast on Thursday, bringing the “risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging hurricane-force winds” to the northern and northeast Gulf Coast, according to the NHC.
Storm path attribution: LSEG
Some major oil companies operating in the region said they have begun evacuating staff from offshore facilities.
Chevron said it began evacuating all personnel and shutting down facilities, including the Blind Faith and Petronius platforms, due to the forecast of potential Tropical Cyclone Nine.
Chevron has also evacuated non-essential workers from four of its other Gulf of Mexico oil platforms, including Anchor, Big Foot, Jack/St. Malo, and Tahiti, but said production remains at normal levels.
Equinor said it was evacuating non-essential staff from its Titan platform.
Shell said it had shut in production at its Stones platform and curtailed production at its Appomattox facilities as a precautionary measure, along with evacuating non-essential staff from its assets in the Mars Corridor.
Equinor and Shell said that these decisions had not yet impacted their production.
The next name on the list of named storms is Helene, and according to private weather forecaster AccuWeather, it could make landfall later this week as a Category 3 hurricane and potentially strengthen into a Category 4.
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