WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2020) Hurricane Sally, the Atlantic region storm due to make landfall later Tuesday, has widened its shutdown of oil production in the US Gulf Coast of Mexico to 27 percent of capacity and natural gas to 28 percent, Interior Department data showed on Tuesday.
The larger shutdowns reflect the precautions being taken with regards to the storm, which the National Hurricane Center said earlier on Tuesday could bring "extreme life-threatening" and historic floods. As of Monday, only 21 percent of oil production in the US Gulf Coast of Mexico had been idled, along with 25 percent of gas output, according to data from the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Sally will be the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth tropical storm or hurricane strength to hit the United States, according to NHC records. On Monday, the agency described Sally as a "dangerous hurricane" sustaining maximum winds near 90 miles per hour (150 km/h) with higher gusts that could strengthen ahead of its expected landfall later on Tuesday.
The storm comes less than three weeks after Hurricane Laura, one of the strongest US hurricanes in more than a century, made landfall on August 27 near Cameron, Louisiana, as a Category 4 storm. Laura, which killed at least 25 people and damaged countless property, also scored a near-direct hit on one refinery in Louisiana processing 769,000 barrels per day of crude oil.
