Oil, gas operators monitor tropical disturbance headed toward Gulf of Mexico

Oil and gas operators are once again preparing as a tropical disturbance heads into the US Gulf of Mexico.

Shell on Monday morning, Sept. 23, said it is monitoring a tropical disturbance for potential impacts to its assets and operations in the Gulf of Mexico. As a precautionary measure, the operator is preparing to shut in production at Stones and Appomattox and has begun evacuating non-essential personnel from its assets in the Mars Corridor. At the same time, the company said it is in the process of pausing some of its drilling operations.

The National Hurricane Center said Sept. 23 that a tropical depression or storm is likely to form within the next day or two as the system moves northward across the northwestern Caribbean Sea and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, where additional development is expected. It could be a major hurricane when it reaches the northeastern Gulf Coast on Thursday.

Reuters reported Monday that Chevron Corp. was transporting non-essential personnel from Gulf of Mexico infrastructure due to the storm, but that “there has  been no effect to production at these platforms due to the tropical weather.”