(Oil Price) – Chevron has shut in its Blind Faith platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and evacuated all personnel from the facility in preparation for Hurricane Milton, the supermajor said on Monday.
“Production from our other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico assets remains at normal levels,” Chevron said in a media update as weather services, forecasters, and Gulf of Mexico producers are watching the path of Hurricane Milton.
Tropical storm Milton has intensified during the weekend to a Category 3 hurricane expected to make landfall along Florida’s west coast later this week, after passing through parts of the Gulf of Mexico.
Early on Monday, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory that Hurricane Milton is rapidly strengthening. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect for the Florida Gulf coast from Flamingo northward to the mouth of the
Suwannee River, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay, NHC said. Storm Surge Watch means there is a possibility of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, in the indicated locations during the next 48 hours.
As Chevron braces for Hurricane Milton, the company has shut the Blind Faith offshore platform, while it follows its storm preparedness procedures at its onshore sites and is paying close attention to the forecast and track of the system.
Producers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have shut in some platforms and output in recent weeks ahead of other tropical storms and hurricanes in the area.
Shell shut in production at Perdido, Auger, and Enchilada/Salsa assets, due to Hurricane Francine which made landfall in Louisiana in early September.
Days later, Shell was preparing to shut in oil and gas production at two of its platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico due to a tropical disturbance.
One of these disturbances later became Hurricane Helene, which spared the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas platforms but devastated areas in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
