U.S. Gulf oil facilities evacuate some staff ahead of storm

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Anadarko Petroleum has evacuated all non-essential personnel from its production platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, a company spokesman said on Monday by email, ahead of a storm threat from Tropical Depression Nine. The evacuations affected the company's Constitution, Marco Polo, Independence Hub and Heidelberg facilities, the spokesman said. Operations remain normal across Anadarko's platforms, but the company is monitoring the weather and is prepared to remove remaining personnel and shut in production if needed, he added. Separately, Transocean on Monday said it was preparing to move two rigs in preparation for the storm. Gulf of Mexico producers Shell and BP on Friday said they were evacuating non-essential personnel from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as a precaution. (Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by David Gregorio)