After clearing staff from four Gulf of Mexico installations, Anadarko Petroleum said it shut down operations until threats from Tropical Storm Harvey clear.
Anadarko operates 10 installations in the Gulf of Mexico and removed non-essential staff from four of those as Harvey gained strength earlier this week
"We continue to closely monitor the weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, and given the potential path of Harvey, we have safely removed all personnel and temporarily shut in production at our operated Boomvang, Gunnison, Lucius and Nansen facilities," the company stated. "These facilities will remain shut-in until the weather has cleared, and it is safe to return our people to these offshore locations."
The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla, issued a hurricane warning for the Texas coast from Port
Mansfield to Matagorda. After losing strength earlier this week, Harvey reformed as a tropical storm and should move quickly toward the southern Texas coast. Hurricane conditions are likely by late Friday.
British energy company BP, which operates four production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, said it was closely monitoring the storm system. The company said normal operations continue at all of its operated offshore facilities at this time.
Anadarko said it was prepared to take further steps in the Gulf of Mexico if necessary. Harvey would be the first hurricane to hit Texas in nearly a decade if forecasts are accurate.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 20 percent of total U.S. production. Offshore oil production is on pace to increase nearly 9 percent next year to about 1.85 million barrels per day.
For retail gasoline prices, the largest one-month increase on record in the United States was Aug. 5 to Sept. 4, 2005, when prices jumped 75 cents largely because of Hurricane Katrina.
The 2017 hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
ExxonMobil misled public on climate for decades: study
US oil giant ExxonMobil knowingly misled the public for decades about the danger climate change poses to a warming world and the company's long-term viability, according to a peer-reviewed study released Wednesday.
An analysis of nearly 200 documents spanning decades found that four-fifths of scientific studies and internal memos acknowledged global warming is real and caused by humans.
