Florida restricts port activity as Hurricane Milton reaches Category 5

Florida ports have moved to restrict ship navigation as Hurricane Milton intensifies as it heads up the state’s coast and threatens to become a Category 4 or 5 hurricane before moving through Central Florida.

Earlier Monday, Chevron said it had shut down its Blind Faith platform and evacuated all personnel as a precaution.

“Production from our other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico assets remains at normal levels,” Chevron said in a media update as weather services, forecasters and producers in the Gulf of Mexico track the path of Hurricane Milton.

Hurricane Milton will make landfall in Florida later this week after passing through the US Gulf of Mexico.

By Monday afternoon, Milton had strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour as it headed toward Florida, with forecasters warning of a major storm surge in Tampa Bay. The warning was issued for most of the west coast of Florida, according to Associated Press (AP).

Reuters reports that most energy assets along the US Gulf Coast are expected to stay out of the storm’s direct path, although precautionary shutdowns could lead to brief supply disruptions.

Producers in the US Gulf of Mexico have shut down some rigs and been producing in recent weeks ahead of other tropical storms and hurricanes in the area. At the beginning of September, Hurricane Francine led to the shutdown of Shell assets, while the subsequent Hurricane Helene, for which cleanup and rescue is still ongoing, claimed at least 230 lives but spared oil and gas infrastructure.

According to forecasters cited by the AP, Hurricane Milton could hit the coast in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday and then cross central Florida towards the Atlantic Ocean.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com

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