Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:59pm ET
HOUSTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Oil majors BP Plc. (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Shell Oil Co. and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) all said on Sunday they were pulling nonessential workers from U.S. Gulf of Mexico rigs and platforms in preparation for Hurricane Ernesto.
No company reported cuts in oil and natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf, which produces 25 percent of U.S. supply.
BP said 300 workers would be evacuated from deepwater drilling rigs and nonproducing platforms on Sunday.
The 300 evacuated Sunday will join 800 workers already ashore. The evacuations have cut BP’s offshore Gulf work force nearly in half from 2,400 last week.
Shell Oil Co., the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), said in a statement that 110 workers were pulled from Shell-operated Gulf of Mexico facilities on Saturday.
Conoco said between 35 and 40 nonessential workers would be pulled from operations in the Garden Banks and Green Canyon areas of the Gulf on Sunday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center, which had been forecasting that Ernesto would enter the central Gulf of Mexico as a powerful hurricane by midweek, on Sunday shifted the storm center’s projected path to the eastern Gulf, well away from oil and gas production areas.
Last year, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita temporarily halted almost all oil and natural gas output from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
In late July, The U.S. Minerals Management Service said about 12 percent of the 1.5 million daily barrels of oil and 9.4 percent of the 10 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas produced in the Gulf before Katrina remains shut-in due to the 2005 hurricanes.
Much of the shut production is not expected to be restored.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
