LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it will evacuate a further 200 people from its Gulf of Mexico operations today and will continue to evacuate as needed in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Dean.
The latest scheduled evacuations follow Saturday’s exodus of 380 people from the company’s operations in the western Gulf of Mexico, along the projected path of the hurricane.
A spokesman for the oil major said evacuations are of personnel ‘non-essential to producing and drilling operations’, as well as the reduction of producing operations personnel to minimum levels.
As of midnight on Saturday, Shell had shut-in 23,000 barrels of oil per day and 47.5 mln cubic feet of natural gas per day in preparation for the storm, which is heading towards Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
According to most models, Dean’s current projected trajectory misses the US oil regions in the Gulf, although it is headed for the Bay of Campeche, which is home to most of the Mexican offshore oil production.
The US National Hurricane Center said Dean could strengthen over the Bay of Campeche and could regain major hurricane status before making its final landfall.
BP PLC is closely monitoring the storm and said on Friday that it would evacuate non-essential personnel from its offshore facilities over the weekend, but normal production operations will continue. [email protected] ks/jag
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