Shell names six Gulf of Mexico platforms as Invest 92L is watched
The company says monitoring is precautionary only, with no other impact yet to its Gulf of Mexico operations
Published
Shell is monitoring a tropical disturbance known as Invest 92L and has named six Gulf of Mexico platforms as a precaution: Stones, Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox. The company says there are currently no other impacts to its operations across the Gulf.
The National Hurricane Center said in its 8am forecast on Tuesday that Invest 92L is expected to strengthen, with a tropical depression likely to form within a day or so. AccuWeather has forecast landfall near the Alabama-Mississippi border on October 10. Fox Weather meteorologist Bryan Norcross said that if the system organizes and strengthens it would likely be pulled north and could become Tropical Storm Isaias, but that a weaker system could instead stall in the Gulf. He added that upper-level winds are expected to stay hostile over the extreme northern Gulf and only moderately supportive over the central Gulf, with dry air moving in from Texas, factors that could keep any storm capped at tropical-storm strength. Fox Weather also noted the system arrives during the quietest start to an Atlantic hurricane season since 1966, and that hurricane hunters were sent out on Tuesday afternoon to gather data on it.
Naming the platforms is a watch step, not a shutdown. If Invest 92L keeps strengthening, the prospect of shut-ins at any of the six sites would tighten US Gulf crude output at a time when broader supply discussion is already leaning on tight Middle East LNG flows. A confirmed evacuation or production curtailment would be the more direct trigger for crude prices, and Shell has not announced either step.