UPDATE: GOM Evacuations and Shut-Ins Increase Ahead of Hurricane Delta

Operators in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) are evacuating more personal from platforms and rigs on Wednesday and shutting in more production as Hurricane Delta appears headed toward the Louisiana area this week.

BSEE estimated about 80% of the GOM’s oil production and 49% of natural gas production was shut- in, up from 29% of oil production and 9% of natural gas production shut in on Tuesday.

Delta weakened to a category 2 storm and made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday morning and is expected to move north toward the US Gulf Coast over the coming days.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) activated its hurricane response team on Tuesday, while offshore operators began evacuating platforms and rigs in response to Delta.

Based on operators reports, BSEE said personnel were evacuated from 180 production platforms (28% of 643 manned GOM platforms) and three nondynamically position rigs (30%). This was up from 56 production platforms and one nondynamically positioned rig on Tuesday.

Twelve dynamically positioned rigs (75% of 16) also moved off location out of the hurricane's projected plant as a precaution, compared with six on Tuesday.

BSEE estimated about 80% of the GOM’s oil production and 49% of natural gas production was shut in, up from 29% of oil production and 9% of natural gas production shut in on Tuesday.