Royal Dutch Shell on Saturday said it ceased some oil production and began evacuating non-essential workers from its Perdido offshore platform in the US Gulf of Mexico as tropical storm Beta approached. Beta is the third tropical storm to hit the area this month.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to strengthen and bring rains to the Texas coast this week. The NHC said in a Saturday update that Beta would unlikely strengthen into a hurricane. However, it had issued a hurricane watch for most of the coastal regions in Texas.
Occidental Petroleum Corp also operates in the same area as Shell’s Perdido. The company said it had initiated storm procedures. Spokespeople for BP, Murphy Oil and Hess Corp. on Saturday said the companies were monitoring conditions.
Beta comes as offshore oil and gas producers are resuming their operations. According to the US Department of Interior, about 339 Mcf or 13% of offshore natural gas output and 323,000 barrels or 17% of oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico were still offline on Saturday due to Hurricane Sally.
