US Gulf operators shut in ahead of Sally

Offshore operators are shutting facilities in the US Gulf of Mexico as tropical storm Sally appeared headed for landfall on the Louisiana-Mississippi coast.

Chevron started shut-in procedures and evacuated all personnel from its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms over the weekend. Production at other Chevron-operated offshore assets remain at normal levels, the company said today.

Marine operations at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) were suspended. LOOP, about 20 miles (32km) off the coast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, is the only US port capable of fully loading Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

BP said it has secured offshore facilities and evacuated non-essential personnel from the Nakika and Thunderhorse platforms.

Shell is securing drilling operations for some rigs in preparation for potentially severe weather but there are no impacts to Gulf of Mexico production and all personnel remain aboard Shell assets, the company said today.

The lower Mississippi River and the ports of New Orleans and Baton Rouge were open but set to condition Yankee today, which means vessel movements within the ports are subject to approval by the port's captain, and sustained winds greater than 40 mph are expected to arrive within 24 hours.

Sally is expected to become a hurricane tomorrow threatening the area from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, including New Orleans, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Sally is the third storm to hit the Gulf coast region in recent weeks.

Hurricane Laura made landfall on 27 August near Cameron, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane reaching sustained winds of 150mph (241 km/h). Laura came on the heels of tropical storm Marco, which weakened significantly before making landfall on 24 August.

About 1.6mn b/d of offshore crude production was shut in because of those two storms, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said. Large parts of southwest Louisiana remain without power from those storms, which damaged several refineries, leading to slow restarts.

By Eunice Bridges