Oil companies are moving workers and equipment out of the path of Hurricane Isaias as the storm approaches the northern Gulf Coast, where it could make landfall Friday evening near Alabama or Florida’s Panhandle. Shell and BP have evacuated personnel from offshore facilities near the storm, while Chevron has moved workers off nearby drilling rigs and plans to return them after conditions improve. Operators are also taking routine safety measures, including closing valves on the seabed and relocating mobile drilling equipment when possible. Exxon said its operations remained normal as it monitored the weather. The storm was forecast to track east of much of the region’s oil infrastructure, including the concentration of platforms and refineries in western Louisiana and Texas. Debnil Chowdhury, head of Americas refining at S&P Global Energy, said the track could have been worse for the industry. Bryan Domangue, a federal official overseeing offshore oil and gas production, said Isaias had passed just south of some major deepwater facilities and was following the eastern edge of the infrastructure. Two refineries are closer to the projected path: Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi and the Vertex refinery in Alabama. Together, they represent about 2.5% of U.S. refining capacity and 5% of Gulf Coast capacity, according to Chowdhury. Pascagoula is particularly important to jet-fuel supply for airports across the Southeast. Representatives of the two refineries did not provide details about their storm preparations. Chevron said generally that refineries prepare by working to reduce flood risks. A direct hit that floods a refinery or knocks out its power could disrupt fuel production for longer than a shutdown of offshore drilling. Refineries rely on a continuous, interdependent process to heat and separate crude into products such as gasoline and diesel; restoring operations can take time even after a brief interruption. Carl Larry, an energy analyst at Enverus, compared restarting a refinery to getting an old car running again. The potential disruption comes as U.S. refineries are operating at 92.7% capacity, processing about 17 million barrels of crude a day, and fuel markets face tight global supplies. AAA listed the national average at $4.37 a gallon for gasoline and $6.27 for diesel. The 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused extensive damage to Gulf energy infrastructure, while later storms including Ida, Harvey and Francine also curtailed production or refinery capacity.