HOUSTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - U.S. oil producers were

scrambling on Monday to evacuate staff from Gulf of Mexico oil

production platforms as the second major hurricane in two weeks

was predicted to tear through offshore oil producing fields.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a potential Tropical

Cyclone in the Caribbean was expected to rapidly intensify over

the gulf's warm waters and could become a major hurricane with

winds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 kph) by Thursday.

The storm, which would be called Helene, could hit the U.S.

as a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale,

bringing the "risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging

hurricane-force winds" to the northeastern Gulf Coast and

Florida Panhandle, according to the NHC.

Storm path attribution: LSEG

Oil companies BP, Chevron ( CVX ), Equinor ( EQNR )

and Shell, have begun evacuating offshore staff, and

several have paused some production.

BP shut in oil and gas output at its Na Kika and Thunder

Horse platforms and curtailed output at two others, Argos and

Atlantis. Employees are being removed from those four platforms

and a fifth, called Mad Dog, it said.

Chevron ( CVX ) said it has begun evacuating all personnel

and shutting in production at its Blind Faith and Petronius

offshore platforms.

Non-essential staff are being evacuated from Anchor, Big

Foot, Jack/St. Malo, and Tahiti. Production remains at normal

levels at those platforms, it said.

Equinor ( EQNR ) said it was evacuating non-essential

staff from its Titan platform. Production has not been affected,

it said.

Occidental Petroleum ( OXY ) said in a web post it would

implement safety procedures "as appropriate" at its offshore

operations. Talos Energy ( TALO ) declined to comment on its

storm preparations.

Shell said it had shut in production at its Stones

platform, curtailed production at its Appomattox facility, and

was pausing some drilling operations. Non-essential staff from

Mars, Olympus and Ursa offshore facilities were being evacuated.

Production at those three continued, Shell said.

"The system is expected to grow in size while it traverses

the Gulf," said NHC meteorologist Brad Reinhart. Its "fast

forward speed as it approaches the coast will likely result in

farther inland penetration of gusty winds over parts of the

southeastern United State after landfall."