By Sabrina Valley
HOUSTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) – BP Plc said on Monday it is shutting down production at the Na Kika and Thunder Horse offshore oil platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, following forecasts that Hurricane Ian will strengthen in the next few days to the northeast of the gulf.
Hurricane Ian was in the Caribbean on Monday and was forecast to pass over the western tip of Cuba overnight and enter the Gulf of Mexico. Its 85 mph winds are expected to quickly intensify and the storm will become a major hurricane as it crosses the warm waters of the gulf.
BP said it has evacuated all personnel from its 130,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) Na Kika platform, as well as essential personnel from its 250,000 bpd Thunder Horse platform.
The platforms have a production capacity of 550 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) and 200 mmcf/d of natural gas, respectively.
“We will continue to closely monitor weather conditions to determine next steps,” BP said in a statement.
For its part, Chevron Corp. has begun transporting all personnel from its Petronius and Blind Faith rigs and is closing the facilities, the company said in a note, with production at other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico locations remaining at low levels. normal.
Shell PLC said Monday that it is closely monitoring Hurricane Ian and that it has not affected its operations in the Gulf.
(Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Additional reporting by Arathy Somasekhar; Editing in Spanish by Aida Pelรกez-Fernรกndez)
