Heavy weather ahead: as Cyclone Nicholas heads for WA's Pilbara region
Pilbara players batten down hatches
Producers operating off Australia's Pilbara coast have shut in output totalling at least 220,000 barrels per day - about 40% of the country's production - as Tropical Cyclone Nicholas bears down on the remote north-western coast of Western Australia.
Chevron is the latest operator to shut in output, taking about 9000 bpd offline.
The supermajor's Australian unit has also moved non-essential workers from its onshore facilities at Barrow and Thevenard islands.
BHP Billiton, Woodside Petroleum and Apache have also shut in output ahead of the cyclone.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is warning of hurricane-force winds offshore and very high to phenomenal seas near the centre of the cyclone.
Nicholas, categorised as a Severe Tropical Cyclone, was 265 kilometres north north-west of Onslow at noon local time today, the bureau said on its website.
Nicholas is moving south-west at 9 kilometres per hour and is expected to continue in that direction before turning more to the south later today, the bureau said.
BHP yesterday said it suspended operations at the Stybarrow and Griffin fields. Stybarrow, in which Woodside has a 50% stake, started production in November and reached 80,000 bpd in December. Griffin produces about 8000 bpd, as well as some associated gas.
Woodside halted production to the Nganhurra floating production, storage and offloading vessel, which operates at Enfield. Output at Enfield averaged 30,000 bpd at the end of December.
Woodside shut in production at the North West Shelf venture's Cossack Pioneer oil vessel, which produced an average of 74,000 bpd in the December quarter, on Friday.
The Enfield and Cossack projects are still shut in, Roger Martin, a spokesman for Perth-based Woodside, said today. Gas production on the North West Shelf is continuing.
Earlier in the week Apache halted production at the Stag and Legendre fields, while AED Oil shut in flows from Puffin.
Santos' Mutineer-Exeter field, which is also in the cyclone's path, is already shut in for maintenance.