Supermajors Evacuate Gulf of Mexico

Chevron, Shell and Exxon have begun evacuating staff working on offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a subtropical storm Alberto. Production has not yet been affected, the companies said. Platts quoted Chevron as saying it had started shutting down operations at two platforms, Blind Faith and Petronius, off the Louisiana coast, and Shell said it had shut down the Ram Powell platform and had pulled out staff from the Appomattox deepwater platform, which is under construction, Oil Price reported. Exxon has also shut down two platforms: one offshore Louisiana and another offshore Alabama.

Overall crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico stood at 1.7 million barrels daily in the first quarter of the year and should rise to 1.78 million bpd by the end of June, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration. Alberto is expected to cross the eastern and northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico this Sunday and make landfall the next day in the Florida panhandle.