Oil firms pull U.S. Gulf workers

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil companies removed nonessential workers from offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday due to the threat of a gathering storm, with only a small amount of production stopped so far.

Exxon Mobil said late Wednesday it shut 1,000 barrels of daily crude oil production along with 55 thousand cubic feet per day of natural gas output — just a fraction of the region’s capacity.


Oil prices were up, briefly hitting a record above $82 per barrel, as traders weighed the possibility of severe disruptions to output from the region, home to 1.3 million bpd of U.S. oil and 7.7 billion cfd of gas output.

The National Hurricane Center said Wednesday a tropical disturbance over Florida could strengthen into a tropical cyclone and cross into the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days, threatening a quarter of the nation’s oil production.

Reuters