Storm Nate Turns to Mexico, Away From Gulf
Tropical Storm Nate
NOAA via Getty Images
In this satellite handout from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Tropical Storm Nate passes near the Yucatan Peninsula Sept. 8, 2011, as seen from space.
In this satellite handout from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Tropical Storm Nate passes near the Yucatan Peninsula Sept. 8, 2011, as seen from space. Source: NOAA via Getty Images
Tropical Storm Nate is forecast to veer westward into Mexico, away from U.S. energy platforms and rigs in the Gulf, as Maria bears down on the Lesser Antilles and Hurricane Katia drifts toward the northern Atlantic.
Nate’s top winds dropped today to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour from 65 mph, according to a National Hurricane Center advisory at 2 p.m. Eastern time. It probably will strengthen to a hurricane by tomorrow, and that prompted Mexico to issue a hurricane watch from Tampico to Veracruz in anticipation of landfall as early as Sept. 11.
“As of right now, the risks to production in the northern Gulf of Mexico are pretty low given the changes in Nate’s track,” said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. “We had a bit of a scare yesterday, but now we’re seeing it mainly as a Mexico concern.”
The Gulf is home to 27 percent of U.S. oil output and 6.5 percent of natural gas production. Four production platforms are shut, or 0.7 percent of the 617 crewed structures, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said today.
About 6.2 percent of Gulf oil and 4 percent of natural gas production have been shut-in, the agency said. Last week’s Tropical Storm Lee halted production of about 61 percent of Gulf oil and 55 percent of natural gas.
Gulf Precautions
BP Plc and Apache Corp. yesterday began evacuations of some workers in the Gulf because of Nate. The BP decision affected non-essential workers at the Atlantis, Holstein and Mad Dog platforms, according to a message on a telephone hotline. Apache’s removal of non-essential workers from facilities in the far western Gulf didn’t affect production, Bill Mintz, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, closed three crude export terminals in the Gulf after Nate formed, according to a weather bulletin on the website of Mexico’s Merchant Marine.
In addition to the hurricane watch, which means winds of at least 74 mph are possible within two days, Mexico has issued a tropical storm watch from Tampico to La Cruz and from Veracruz to Punta El Lagarto. A storm watch on the Yucatan Peninsula has been dropped.
Nate is currently about 150 miles west of Campeche, Mexico, according to the center.
Storm Maria
To the east, Tropical Storm Maria is bearing down on the Lesser Antilles and a tropical storm watch has been changed to a warning for Puerto Rico and Dominica, the centers said.
A warning means storm conditions can be expected within 36 hours. The alerts have been posted throughout the island chain including Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Rogers said he expected Maria to move into the Atlantic after passing through the islands, although there’s a chance the storm may come close to the U.S. East Coast next week.
Maria, 135 miles northeast of Barbados, is expected to reach hurricane strength in four days, according to a center advisory issued at 2 p.m. Its top winds are currently 45 mph.
To the north of Maria, Hurricane Katia is halfway between Bermuda and Nova Scotia on a track that will take it across the Atlantic toward the U.K. by next week.
Katia, a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir- Simpson scale with winds of 85 mph, is 385 miles south-southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Lananh Nguyen in London at lnguyen35@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page