Shell said there was no impact to production in the Gulf from Sunday's evacuations or from plans to pull more workers from platforms that may be in path of the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season to menace offshore oil and natural gas production areas.
Other oil and natural gas companies said they were monitoring the storm's progress as it entered the Gulf on Monday after crossing Mexico's Yucatan peninsula overnight.
Shell said it took 125 people off platforms on Sunday and planned to take another 60 from the Gulf on Monday.
The company does not expect production to be affected as long as Dolly follows a forecast path across the southern Gulf toward landfall near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The 10 a.m. CDT (1500 GMT) forecast from the U.S. National Hurricane Center projected that Dolly will move northwest across the southern Gulf of Mexico to make landfall Wednesday night north of Brownsville, Texas.
The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch from the Mexican border to Port O'Connor, Texas. Included in that watch was the refining center of Corpus Christi, Texas.
The Mexican government has issued a hurricane watch from Rio San Fernando, Texas, to the U.S. border.
A watch means a hurricane is possible in those areas.
While the 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons had little impact on offshore production areas, the companies have prepared for a possible repeat of 2005 when hurricanes Katrina and Rita temporarily shut a quarter of U.S. oil and fuel production, sending prices to record highs.
