Spglobal - US Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas producers continued evacuating crews Oct. 6 with Hurricane Delta expected to strengthen before hitting the Louisiana coast later in the week.

Norway's Equinor is in the process of evacuating crews from its Titan platform, company spokesman Erik Haaland said in an e-mail Oct. 6.

"We expect that Titan will be fully evacuated and shut down by Tuesday," Haaland said.

Chevron also has begun not only evacuating crews from its operated Gulf of Mexico platforms, but shutting in the facilities, the major said late in a Oct. 5 bulletin.

A day earlier, BP said it had begun securing offshore facilities and evacuating non-essential crews from its four offshore platforms: Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Na Kika.

And, BHP was doing likewise at its operated Shenzi and Neptune platforms, company spokeswoman Judy Dane said, adding BHP plans to be fully evacuated and the platforms shut-in by Oct. 7.

Hurricane Delta "continues to rapidly strengthen" and is currently about 370 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico and 115 miles south-southwest of Grand Cayman, according to the US' National Hurricane Center. It is moving north-northwest near 15 mph, with faster motion to begin later Oct. 6 through Oct. 7, NHC said.

"Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 110 mph, with higher gusts," NHC said at 8 am ET. "Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Delta is expected to be a major hurricane when it moves over the Yucatan Peninsula [Oct. 7] and over the Gulf of Mexico through [Oct. 8]."

NHC's track has Delta making landfall very early Oct. 10 along the central-to-eastern Louisiana coast as a weakened Category 1 hurricane, with winds  of 74-110 mph.