MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron, BHP evacuate workers from Gulf of Mexico due to hurricane HOUSTON: Major offshore oil and gas producers on Friday were evacuating non-essential staff from production platforms in the US Gulf of Mexico due to the threat from Hurricane Dorian, reported Reuters.
BP, Chevron Corp and BHP Group said they had or were in the process of removing some workers from their facilities as a precautionary measure. Each said oil and gas production at the offshore facilities was unaffected.
Dorian is forecast to strike the Atlantic coast of Florida by early next week as a major hurricane. Some computer models project Dorian may cross the Florida peninsula and enter the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico account for 16%of U.S. crude oil output and about 4% of US natural gas.
Planned evacuations were complete at BP's Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunderhorse, and at Chevron's Petronius and Blind Faith platforms, the companies said. BHP will evacuate non-essential workers from its Neptune and Shenzi production facilities on Saturday, a spokeswoman said.
Exxon Mobil Corp and Occidental Petroleum said they are closely monitoring Dorian, and their Gulf of Mexico operations were operating normally.
Other oil companies with operations in the US-regulated north Gulf of Mexico did not reply to requests for comment about offshore operations.
Chevron said its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery continues to monitor the storm.
Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, has not modified operations at its Norco and Convent, Louisiana, refineries, according to spokesman Ray Fisher. Shell spokeswoman Cynthia Babski said offshore operations were not affected by the storm's threat.
As MRC wrote earlier, Chevron shut down its fluidized catalytic cracker (FCC) unit in Pasadena (Texas, USA) with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes of propylene per year for a scheduled turnaround on 30 August, 2019. Duration of the shutdown was unknown.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC