Anadarko removing Gulf of Mexico staff due to Hurricane Irma

Following BP’s cue, U.S. oil company Anadarko is evacuating non-essential personnel from its facilities in the eastern Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Irma. 

As a reminder, BP on Wednesday started securing offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico for heavy weather and evacuating non-essential personnel from the Thunder Horse platform and the Seadrill-owned West Vela drillship. However, no production was shut-in at the time.

Anadarko said on Thursday it was monitoring the weather conditions associated with Hurricane Irma.

“Although we don’t currently anticipate any impact to our operations, as a precautionary measure, we are removing non-essential personnel from our operated facilities in the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” said the company.

Anadarko also added that production had not been affected at this time.

While some oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are removing their staff from offshore facilities, Shell said on Thursday it had restarted operations at its Perdido platform, which had been shut in in late August due to Hurricane Harvey.

“Shell safely restarted operations at its Perdido facility and is currently ramping up production,” the oil major informed on Thursday.

Shell also added that Perdido was designed to safely withstand hurricane force conditions. Perdido has the capacity to process up to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day when producing at peak rates.

According to a Friday update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Irma is moving toward the west-northwest near 16 mph (26 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue for the next day or two with a decrease in forward speed. A turn toward the northwest is expected by late Saturday. On the forecast track, the NHC said on Friday, the eye of Irma should continue to move westward away from the Turks and Caicos Islands and toward the southeastern Bahamas this morning. The core of the hurricane will then move between the north coast of Cuba and the Bahamas during the next day or two.

Irma is a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Further according to information from the NHC, some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Irma is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days.

Offshore Energy Today Staff