US oil firms evacuate staff, cut drilling ahead of Storm Francine

By Georgina McCartney

HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas producers were evacuating staff and curbing drilling to prepare for Tropical Storm Francine on Monday as it churned through the energy region on a path to bring high winds and drenching rains to the U.S. mid-South.

Francine is moving toward U.S. Gulf of Mexico waters and predicted to become the fourth hurricane of the Atlantic season, which ends Nov. 30. Francine could become a Category 1 hurricane with winds of up to 85 mph (137 kph), ahead of landfall on the Louisiana coast on Wednesday evening, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is likely to bring life-threatening storm surge to the upper Texas and Louisiana coasts and hurricane-force winds to Southern Louisiana this week. Residents of Calcasieu Parish in Louisiana on Monday were supplied with sandbags and other materials to combat the expected storm surge, officials said.

The storm's path would put U.S. oil and gas producing facilities and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants at risk. U.S. Gulf of Mexico federal offshore waters account for about 15% of total U.S. crude oil and 2% of its natural gas production.

U.S. crude oil prices on Monday rose 1.5% after falling to multi-month lows last week on worries the storm could disrupt production and refining along the Gulf Coast.

Exxon Mobil said it shut-in output and evacuated staff from its Hoover offshore production platform. Shell said it was evacuating non-essential personnel from three offshore oil platforms, and had paused drilling operations at two others.

Chevron is evacuating non-essential staff from four offshore platforms, but production remains at normal levels, a spokesperson said. BP said it was not expecting major impacts to its Gulf facilities. Occidental Petroleum said it was prepared to implement storm plans as appropriate.

Heavy rainfall and the risk of flash flooding is expected from far northeast Mexico to ports of the Texas coast, southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, the NHC said.

The U.S. Coast Guard has imposed restrictions for vessel navigation in some Texas ports, including the port of Corpus Christi and Freeport, which handle oil imports and exports. The ports of Houston and Galveston in Texas, and New Orleans in Louisiana, were open to vessel traffic on Monday. The deepwater Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) was operating in normal conditions.

Freeport LNG, which operates the nation's second-largest LNG export plant, said it had begun storm preparations without providing details. Port of Freeport, Texas, said it was open to commercial traffic, but vessels must report movements.

Texas officials called on residents to prepare for tropical storm conditions with "the potential to bring flash flooding threats and heavy rain," Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney, Marianna Parraga, Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Marguerita Choy)