US offshore Gulf producers prepare for storm

Some offshore US Gulf of Mexico operators are evacuating non-essential staff from their platforms as tropical storm Nestor is expected to strengthen.

Occidental Petroleum, which owns offshore Gulf assets following its acquisition of Anadarko, has removed all non-essential personnel from its eastern and central Gulf of Mexico facilities, but production remains intact. Given that the system is expected to move in a more easterly direction, it anticipates returning those personnel back to the platforms this weekend, it said.

Chevron has evacuated non-essential personnel from its Petronius facility, but production in all of its assets in the region remains at normal levels. Similarly, ExxonMobil is evacuating non-essential staff from two platforms that are being decommissioned, and there was no impact on output from the region.

BP has not evacuated any facilities.

Forecasts indicate that the system will strengthen in the next 12 hours and move northeast to reach the northeastern US Gulf coast in the next 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest update.

The US Coast Guard set several ports in the US Gulf coast to hurricane conditions as the tropical storm moves northeast toward the region.