⁍ Royal Dutch Shell Plc halted some oil production and began evacuating workers from a U.S. Gulf of Mexico platform.

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⁍ Beta, the 23rd named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed in the Bay of Campeche.

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⁍ Some 17% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production and nearly 13% of natural gas output was offline on Saturday.

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– Royal Dutch Shell has begun evacuating workers from an oil platform in the western Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Beta approaches, Reuters reports. Beta, the 23rd named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed in the Bay of Campeche and was forecast to gradually strengthen and soak the Texas coast all week, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm swirled even as oil and gas producers were restarting their offshore operations. Some 17% of US Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production and nearly 13% of natural gas output was offline on Saturday from Hurricane Sally’s waves and winds. The NHC reduced its maximum wind forecast to 75 miles per hour, just above tropical storm intensity. Drier air aloft will limit Beta’s strength and may prevent it from becoming a hurricane, the NHC said in a Saturday update. Shell said it was removing non-essential employees from its Perdido platform in the western Gulf of Mexico and securing nearby drilling rigs. Occidental Petroleum Corp, which operates in the same area, said it also began implementing storm procedures. BP, Hess Corp, and Murphy Oil Corp. were monitoring conditions on Saturday, spokespeople for the companies said. Beta churned about 245 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, with 60mph winds at 1pm CDT. It issued a hurricane watch for most of the Texas coast and warned of up to 10 inches of rain along the northwest Gulf coast from the slow moving storm.