Shell evacuates and shuts in five Gulf of Mexico platforms as storm nears
Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox go offline after Shell already pulled non-essential staff from Stones
Published
Shell has evacuated all personnel and halted production at its Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox assets in the Gulf of Mexico. The company had already relocated non-essential staff from its Stones platform as a precaution.
The move follows the strengthening of the weather system Shell had been watching near those platforms. The system, once tracked as Invest 92L, was upgraded by the National Hurricane Center to Tropical Depression Nine with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, according to AOL, which cited the NHC. By a 10:00 AM advisory on October 7, the system had been named Tropical Storm Isaias, with winds of 45 mph, moving east-northeast at 8 mph with a pressure of 1,000 mb, according to Watching the Tropics. The NHC forecasts further strengthening into a hurricane, with the storm expected to reach peak intensity as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane by Friday, AOL reported.
Shell had previously named the same six platforms as it monitored the system, calling the step precautionary with no other operational impact at the time. That monitoring has now become a full evacuation and shut-in.
Mars, Ursa, Olympus, Vito and Appomattox together account for a meaningful share of deepwater Gulf of Mexico output, so halting all five removes real barrels from US supply for as long as the storm keeps crews offshore. That is a more direct supply hit than the Middle East LNG losses flagged last month, which were treated as already priced into markets because they reflected a shift in flows rather than a cut in volume. Crude oil could face upward pressure until Shell gives a timeline for restarting the platforms.