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Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp shut production on
platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico due to Alberto and
evacuated workers from those sites, the companies said.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Alberto was
transitioning to a tropical cyclone as its circulation became
more focused around a central core located 135 miles (220 km)
west of Tampa, Florida, with 50 mile per hour winds (85 kph).
The storm was expected to make landfall on Monday morning in the
Florida panhandle.
Chevron shut production at its Blind Faith and Petronius
platforms in the eastern Gulf. The Blind Faith platform is
located in the Mississippi Canyon region of the northern Gulf of
Mexico.
The Petronius platform is in the Viosca Knoll area of the Gulf.
Shell shut its Ram Powell Hub, which is also in the Viosca Knoll
area, on Friday.
Shell has shut the production platform at the Appomattox Hub it
is developing in Norphlet in the eastern Gulf. Appomattox has
not yet begun production, but the platform recently arrived on
the site.
Exxon said production in the Gulf was unaffected by the
evacuations and the company transferred control of its offhsore
operations in Mobile Bay, Alabama, to an onshore control room.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of daily U.S. crude
output and five percent of natural gas output, according to the
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
More than 45 percent of the U.S. refining capacity and 51
percent of natural gas processing capacity is located along the
Gulf.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Frances
Kerry)
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