RTRS: U.S. oil firms monitor new threat in Gulf of Mexico
* Tropical Storm Nate meanders in Bay of Campeche
* Nate forecast to avoid Gulf of Mexico platforms
* HOUSTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico said they were watching Tropical Storm Nate for a possible threat to offshore production.
As of Thursday morning, no production had been shut or workers evacuated due to Nate, which was churning far to the south of U.S. regulated areas in the northern Gulf.
"We're monitoring closely," said Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N) spokesman John Porretto on Thursday morning.
U.S. weather forecasters said Nate was slowly organizing in the Bay of Campeche off the Mexican coast. They said the storm was expected to become a category 1 hurricane with 80 mile per hour (129 kmph) winds before making landfall by the middle of next week near Tampico, Mexico.
If that forecast holds, Nate would only be a threat to Mexican crude oil production in the Bay of Campeche.
As of late Wednesday, Nate had not affected Mexico's oil production, but two major crude exporting ports were shut down for safety reasons.
Leading Gulf producer BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N), along with Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), said Thursday morning they were monitoring the storm, which was meandering in the Bay of Campeche.
The new threat came as the companies were restoring production in the wake of Tropical Storm Lee, which at its height shut more than 60 percent of Gulf oil production and 46 percent of natural gas output.
As of Wednesday, all companies had returned workers who had been evacuated last week before Lee hit, and had or were restoring offshore production.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Wednesday that 516,451 barrels per day, or 36.9 percent, of Gulf oil production remained shut. In addition, 958.4 million cubic feet per day of natural gas output, or 18.1 percent, of Gulf gas production was shut.
The Gulf accounts for 27 percent of U.S. domestic oil production and 8 percent of domestic natural gas output, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (Reporting by Erwin Seba and Bruce Nichols; Editing by John Picinich)
