Energy giant Chevron has halted operations at its Petronius facility in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuated all on-site workers to shore as a precaution ahead of Tropical Depression Two, the company announced Monday.
Chevron also confirmed it is removing non-essential workers from two other offshore locations — its Tubular Bells and Blind Faith platforms. The company noted that its remaining Gulf operations are continuing at normal production levels.
The tropical depression may intensify into Tropical Storm Bertha by later Monday. The National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch covering a stretch of coastline from the Ochlockonee River in Florida westward to the Jefferson/Plaquemines Parish border in Louisiana. Forecasters say the system is expected to gradually gain strength over the coming two days.
Rainfall from the storm is forecast at 2 to 4 inches along the Gulf Coast from western Florida to the Middle Texas Coast through Friday, with some isolated areas potentially seeing up to 8 inches of rain.
Consulting firm Earth Science Associates projects that roughly 2 million barrels of oil could be lost across the Gulf during the storm — a dramatic jump compared to the approximately 10,000 barrels affected by Tropical Storm Arthur last month. The firm noted that more high-output oil platforms lie in the path of this depression than in previous storms.
The Gulf of America federal offshore region produced close to 2 million barrels of crude oil daily as of March, representing about 14% of the nation’s total crude output. Shell, BP, Chevron, and Occidental Petroleum are among the leading deepwater operators in the region. The Gulf Coast’s refining corridor, stretching from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pascagoula, Mississippi, accounts for roughly half of the country’s total refining capacity of 18.4 million barrels per day.
U.S. utility CenterPoint Energy announced Monday it has activated its Emergency Operations Center in response to the approaching storm. CenterPoint Resilience VP Nathan Brownell said in a statement: “With the storm forecast to reach Greater Houston by Friday, if any weather-related outages occur, our crews will be ready to respond and restore power safely and as quickly as possible.”
