US Gulf of Mexico oil and gas producers have shut in about 62.89% of current oil production and 57.35% of current natural gas production as of Thursday, according to the Marine Minerals Administration, as operators continued to respond to Hurricane Isaias.
The agency said personnel had been evacuated from 121 production platforms, representing 32.61% of the 371 manned platforms in the Gulf. It also said workers had been removed from 5 of 11 non-dynamically positioned rigs.
In addition, 4 of the Gulf’s 17 dynamically positioned rigs moved off location as a precaution to avoid the hurricane’s path, the agency said.
Isaias, the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season, is forecast to make landfall near the Mississippi-Alabama-Florida border on Friday night and could strengthen further as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast.
On Wednesday, 25% of oil production and 16% of natural gas output had been shut in.
About 9 million barrels of oil production could be lost across the Gulf through the storm, a marked increase from the 7.1 million barrels impacted by Tropical Storm Bertha in July, according to a model forecast from consulting firm Earth Science Associates.
The US federal offshore Gulf of Mexico produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, accounting for roughly 15% of total US crude output.
About 0.5 million barrels per day of refining capacity is in the storm’s path, including the Pascagoula refinery, energy research and consultancy firm Energy Aspects estimated.
The region also produces an average of about 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.
The companies with the most exposure to the storm include BP, Chevron, ENI, Murphy Oil and Shell, among others, according to the Earth Science model.
BP on Thursday said it had evacuated all personnel from its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms and shut in production, while Shell and Chevron on Wednesday said they were curtailing offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Isaias approached.
(Reporting by Sumit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Cynthia Osterman)