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(Adds background on Gulf production, impact on gasoline prices)
HOUSTON, June 4 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc
and Murphy Oil Corp began evacuating non-essential
workers from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Thursday because of the
threat from Tropical Storm Cristobal.
Shell said its production and drilling operations in the
U.S.-regulated northern Gulf were unaffected despite the
evacuations.
Gulf Coast spot gasoline prices remained steady, traders
said. Gulf CBOB gasoline traded on Thursday at 12.50 cents per
gallon below the futures benchmark, little changed from
Wednesday.
The storm's impact on prices at the pump is expected to be
limited because of the loss of demand from the COVID-19
pandemic, said an analyst with Gas Buddy.
"We aren't expecting an impact on gas prices from Cristobal
at this time given its relatively weak forecast," said Patrick
De Haan at Gas Buddy.
Five companies are removing workers from the Gulf because of
Cristobal, which is forecast to pass through offshore oil
production areas before striking the Louisiana coast by Monday,
according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
BP Plc said on Wednesday that workers were being
evacuated as it shuts in production at its Thunder Horse, Na
Kika and Atlantis platforms. The company is also pulling
non-essential workers from the Mad Dog platform, but production
was unaffected.
Norwegian state-oil company Equinor ASA and
Occidental Petroleum Corp began evacuating non-essential
workers on Wednesday. Equinor plans to shut the Titan platform
on Friday, if necessary.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC (LOOP), Exxon Mobil Corp
, Chevron Corp and Hess Corp said their
operations were normal.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects the Gulf
of Mexico to account for 15% of total U.S. crude oil production
in 2020.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba and Jennifer Hiller in Houston;
Additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by
Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)
