BP removed all personnel and halted production at Na Kika and Thunder Horse, while evacuating nonessential staff from Argos, Atlantis and Mad Dog. Shell is evacuating all personnel and shutting production at Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox. Chevron has begun shutdown procedures at four facilities, with production at five others remaining normal. GasBuddy anticipates production will resume substantially by early next week once the storm passes.
Isaias is forecast to reach the northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday, bringing storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rain. Its eastward shift has reduced the threat to Louisiana refineries, GasBuddy said, though coastal plants farther east remain exposed. Oil analyst Tom Kloza estimated about 450,000 BPD of refining capacity in Mississippi and Alabama was directly threatened, including Chevron's roughly 370,000 BPD Pascagoula refinery and the 75,000 BPD Vertex refinery in Mobile.