BP evacuates personnel from two Gulf platforms ahead of Hurricane Isaias

Industry cuts 1.28 million barrels per day of offshore Gulf output

BP said Thursday it had removed all personnel from its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms and curbed production there as the company prepares for Hurricane Isaias. The company also removed non-essential personnel from its Argos, Atlantis and Mad Dog platforms, BP said.

Shell, Chevron and Harbour Energy have shut in production and evacuated personnel from select Gulf facilities, the companies said. Oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, which the U.S. now calls the Gulf of America, have been cutting production and evacuating personnel from offshore facilities.

The Marine Minerals Administration said 1.28 million barrels a day, or 62.9% of current offshore Gulf output, had been shut in as of Thursday morning, up from about 511,600 barrels a day the day before. Personnel had been evacuated from 121 production platforms and five drilling rigs as of Thursday morning, according to the agency.

Hurricane Isaias intensified and is expected to make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast on Friday or early Saturday, the report said.