A cyclone generating winds up to 130 kilometres per hour was bearing down on the remote west Australian coast on Saturday but has so far had only minimal impact on gas exploration in the region.
Cyclone Billy was located 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of the iron ore mining camp of Wyndham and 180 kilometres west southwest of Port Keats in the Northern Territory at about 2130 GMT moving at 7 kilometres per hour, according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.
Gervase Greene, a spokesman for Rio Tinto, which operates an iron ore mine in Wyndham, said there had been no impact on operations, which are in the process of shutting down for two weeks over the Christmas season.
A BHP spokeswoman Samantha Evans said there were no disruptions to its mines from the storm.
Earlier this week, Woodside Petroleum Ltd suspended drilling of an appraisal well in Australia's Browse Basin and evacuated staff from a semi-submersible drilling vessel as a precaution as the storm intensified.
Another exploration well, Libra-1, being drilled by Royal Dutch Shell in the Browse under a joint venture with Mitsui E&P Australia and Nexus Energy, was also suspended and staff evacuated.
The bureau said winds with gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour were being experienced within 25 kilometres of the core, and gales with gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour were battering other parts of the coast.
"The cyclone is expected to weaken into a tropical low by tonight as it crosses the north Kimberley region, but may redevelop into a tropical cyclone late in the weekend," the bureau said.
A powerful cyclone in northwestern Australia last February forced oil companies, including Apache Corp, Woodside and BHP Billiton to shut over 220,000 barrels a day of oil production, about 40 percent of Australia's output, for nearly a week.
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