title: Factbox: Caribbean and Gulf oil companies begin to brace for Hurricane Irma
text: (Reuters) - Gulf Coast and Caribbean energy infrastructure began to brace for Hurricane Irma, even as recovery operations from Hurricane Harvey are under way.  On Wednesday, BP Plc said it would evacuate non-essential personnel from its Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell said it was monitoring its Gulf assets.  Buckeye Partners has shut its Yabucoa oil terminal in Puerto Rico and is preparing for the storm at two other marine terminals in Florida and the Bahamas, the company said on Wednesday. Irma ranks as one of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in the last 80 years and the strongest Atlantic storm recorded by the U.S. National Hurricane Center outside the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. 