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Cyclone Grows, Oilfields Shut Down Off Western Australia
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Tropical Cyclone Iggy has strengthened to a category two storm and was moving towards Australia's northwest coast on Friday, threatening the region's rich mining fields after shutting down some offshore oil production facilities.
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Stocktrek Images | Getty Images |
Cyclone Iggy was upgraded from a category one storm and was about 600 km (370 miles) northwest of Exmouth at 0040 GMT and moving southeasterly, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said on Friday.
Category two is the second lowest of five cyclone ratings, with wind gusts at its centre of 130 km/h (80 mph), but is intensifying and is expected to become a category three storm by late Saturday, the weather bureau said in a statement on its website (www.bom.gov.au).
"Over the next 72 hours TC Iggy will steadily intensify while moving southeastwards towards the western Pilbara coast," the bureau said in its statement.
"Strong winds, heavy rainfall and abnormally large swells will be experienced near Christmas Island, the Kimberley and Pilbara coasts."
Companies including Rio Tinto [RIO
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] and BHP Billiton [BHP
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] have major iron ore mining operations in the Pilbara region.
Australia's Wooside Petroleum, which suspended production at some offshore fields on Wednesday due to the storm, said on Friday it had shut oil production at its Vincent, Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermes oil fields off the northwest coast.
Woodside's Vincent oil field produced just under 14,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2011.
Apache [APA
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] had also suspended some oil production, including at the Ningaloo Vision, the floating production, storage and offloading vessel that produces oil from Apache's Van Gogh oil field.
The Ningaloo Vision has a 150,000 bpd capacity. Apache said on Wednesday it was prepared to move the Ningaloo off site at short notice.
Tropical cyclones and temporary shutdowns are a normal part of Australian summers, but an especially stormy season can have major impacts, such as when cyclones and flooding swamped the coal-mining industry in the country's northeast a year ago.
Tropical cyclone Heidi lashed the remote northwest earlier this month, shutting the major iron ore terminal at Port Hedland.
"State Emergency Service advises that there are no community alerts at present," said the weather bureau.
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Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
