US producers in the Gulf of Mexico shut in about 1.5 million barrels per day of oil production and 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, an increase from Thursday, as Hurricane Isaias churned toward the coast ahead of an expected landfall along the Florida Panhandle late on Friday.
The shut-ins represent nearly 72% and 59% of US oil and natural gas production in the Gulf, respectively, according to the Marine Minerals Administration.
Personnel have been evacuated from 129 production platforms, representing 35% of the 371 staffed platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the agency said. It added that crews had also been evacuated from eight non-dynamically positioned rigs.
The US federal offshore Gulf of Mexico produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, or roughly 15% of total US crude output. The region also produces an average of about 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.
Isaias, the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season, has strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane and is moving north-northeast. Weakening is expected after the storm makes landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane could disrupt roughly 7.2 million barrels of Gulf oil production, according to Earth Science Associates. The consulting firm cut its forecast from 9 million barrels on Thursday as the storm’s projected path tracked eastward.
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.
Shell said late on Thursday it had completed evacuations at its Appomattox, Mars, Ursa, Olympus and Vito facilities, while production remained shut in at Mars, Ursa, Olympus and Vito.
Chevron has evacuated most personnel from its Gulf of Mexico facilities, while maintaining production at four operated platforms and shutting in output at the remaining five.
“At our onshore facilities, we continue to follow our established storm preparedness procedures and are closely monitoring the projected path of the hurricane,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
About 500,000 barrels of daily refining capacity are in the storm’s path, including the Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery, Energy Aspects estimated.
(Reporting by Sumit Saha and Noel John in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter, Nathan Crooks and Andrea Ricci )