Oz players keep weather eye on Pancho
Photo by Australian Bureau of Meteorology
A powerful category-three cyclone, Cyclone Pancho, has formed off the
north-west coast of Australia and is likely to move south or south-east,
potentially threatening production at some of the country's offshore
oilfields.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said today that tropical Cyclone Pancho was
located 1208 kilometres west of the Exmouth region at 4 pm local time and
warned of winds above 55 knots with "very high to phenomenal seas".
But the cyclone is not expected to affect the Western Australian coastline in
the next 48 hours, the bureau said.
Woodside Petroleum, which operates a number of fields in the area, told
Reuters it was keeping a close eye on the storm but was continuing normal
operations at all fields for now.
Chevron also said it was monitoring the storm but has not shut down any
operations.
No shut ins have been reported as yet.
Last month, a powerful cyclone forced oil companies, including Apache,
Woodside and BHP Billiton to shut over 220,000 barrels per day of oil
production, about 40% of Australia's output, for nearly a week.
26 March 2008 08:12 GMT
| last updated:
27 March 2008 03:47 GMT
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