US oil firms evacuate staff, cut drilling ahead of Storm Francine

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

September 9, 2024 4:52 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago


HOUSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas producers on Monday were evacuating staff and curbing drilling as Tropical Storm Francine churned through the energy region on a path to bring high winds and drenching rains to the U.S. mid-South.

Francine is moving toward U.S. Gulf of Mexico waters and predicted to become the fourth hurricane of the Atlantic season, which ends Nov. 30. Francine could become a Category 1 hurricane with winds of up to 85 mph (137 kph), ahead of landfall on the Louisiana coast on Wednesday evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is likely to bring life-threatening storm surge to the upper Texas and Louisiana coasts and hurricane-force winds to Southern Louisiana this week. New Orleans and other communities began offering flood-preventing sandbags to residents. Grand Isle, on the tip of Louisiana's coast, called for a voluntary evacuation of residents and canceled Tuesday school sessions.

The storm's path puts U.S. oil and gas producing facilities and coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants at risk. Areas along coastal Louisiana could experience 5-10-foot (1.5-3-m) storm surges, the NHC said. U.S. Gulf of Mexico federal offshore waters account for about 15% of total U.S. crude oil and 2% of natural gas production.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-pauses-some-oil-drilling-operations-storm-francine-approaches-texas-coast-2024-09-09/

[Think. Again.]

1. It's almost like Mother Nature is tired of waiting for US to protect her.

[duncang]

2. Right now

Gas and oil platforms have probably already sent contractors in. Platform personnel are stowing and tying down things on the platforms. Things like jack up work rigs have moved inshore. Production platforms are preparing to set dead man switches. I don’t know how many have them now but several I worked on did way back. They were setup to keep the platform producing and reporting back onshore. If the onshore operators are saw a problem they could shut it down remotely. If a platform doesn’t get a signal from onshore it automatically shuts down. A platform I worked on its controls were all the way in Dallas Texas.

Refineries if they think it’s going to be close enough to cause problems they do something similar. Go to just an emergency crew. If they are really worried about high winds they may lower the level of some towers. Or shutdown plant areas. Most control centers are blast resistant so it’s a pretty safe place. Cots, food, water, checking backup generators etc.. I only volunteered for coverage twice. You would be surprised how many people do. Big money times.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. The area was lucky during the 2023 hurricane season

as none of the storms really got close to where many of those platforms are.

This year Hurricane/Tropical Storm Beryl did impact there (TX platforms) -