The oil giants have announced they are monitoring the route and severity of the tropical depression closely and making preparations to best ensure the safety of their personnel and assets.

A BP Spokesperson said “With forecasts indicating the system will be entering the eastern Gulf of Mexico, BP has evacuated all non-essential personnel from its four operated platforms in the Gulf and has begun shutting-in production at the Thunder Horse, Na Kika and Atlantis platforms.”

Shell has also decided to shut in production at the Coulomb field following the shut in of associated downstream oil and gas gathering systems and receipt points. The Coulomb field is owned by Shell and produces back to the Na Kika platform, which is operated by BP (50%) and co-owned by Shell (50%). Shell said production was unaffected at all other Shell-operated assets.

The US Hurricane Center issued an update today stating the tropical depression which is currently southwest of Florida was moving to the west at around 7mph and was expected to take a slow west-northwest motion before turning north-northwest on Tuesday night and north-northeast on Wednesday. The center of the depression is expected to move into the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the next 48 hours.

Reports from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane hunter aircraft measured wind speeds near 35 mph, gusting higher. The storm was predicted to strengthen during the next 48 hours before turning into a tropical storm on Tuesday.