Equinor shuts down Gulf oil rig ahead of hurricane as oil prices fall

Norway’s Equinor has halted operations on its Titan rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Reuters reports, a day after evacuating non-essential personnel as a tropical cyclone system moves towards Florida, where it is expected to become a massive hurricane until thursday.

Despite precautionary shutdowns for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, oil prices were explosively lower on Wednesday, losing as 3% by 12:36 PM ET on Chinese stimulus uncertainty and US inventories.

Earlier on Wednesday, reports suggested the specific threat to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had eased, easing some jitters about potential supply disruptions from a place that accounts for about 14 percent of all U.S. oil and gas production, more than about half of the country’s oil production. oil and gas processing capacity.

Earlier in the week, Shell, Chevron and Equinor evacuated all staff from offshore facilities. Chevron on Monday completed the evacuation of non-essential personnel from facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Anchor, Big Foot, Blind Faith, Jack, Petronius and Tahiti platforms. Shell on Sunday began preparations for the closure of two platforms – Stones and Appomattox.

Hurricane Helene is moving eastward, with the National Hurricane Center predicting the tropical storm will strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane in the coming hours, strengthen by late Wednesday, and be poised to make landfall in Florida, which has already declared a state of emergency. expedite. .

According to Reuters, 16 percent of crude oil production was suspended along with 11 percent of natural gas production. This equates to approximately 284,000 bpd in oil production and 208 million cubic meters of gas production.

Just two weeks agoa hurricane passed through the Gulf of Mexico with output of nearly 700,000 bpd for days, serving to support oil prices. Some production remained shut down a week after Francine arrived in Louisiana.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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