Hurricane Beryl threat to US offshore oil lower

A northward shift in forecasts for Hurricane Beryl could bring the storm to the mid-Texas coast early next week, but its threat to US Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production appears limited.

US Gulf oil and gas operators evacuated non-essential workers from some offshore facilities earlier in the week as a precaution. But on Thursday those concerns appeared to lessen, with BP saying the storm "... no longer poses a significant threat to our Gulf of Mexico assets".

Beryl had weakened to a Category 2 hurricane, according to a 5pm ET advisory from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The storm is expected to reach the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico by early Friday, bringing heavy rain, hurricane-force winds and storm surge.

Beryl will likely weaken to tropical storm status as it passes over the Yucatan but regain hurricane status when it enters the Gulf of Mexico late Friday-early Saturday. Current forecasts have it turning northwest to make landfall again somewhere between the northeastern coast of Mexico and the mid-Texas coast on Sunday.

The US Coast Guard changed the status of the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, -- a key US oil export hub -- to "whiskey" on Thursday, meaning gale force winds are expected to arrive at the port within 72 hours. The port remains open to all commercial traffic.

Earlier in the week Beryl was a Category 5 storm, which made it the strongest on record for the month of July. It was a Category 4 storm on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph as it brushed past the southern coast of Jamaica.

By Brett Holmes