Oil workers flee as third storm in month aims for U.S. offshore fields

Royal Dutch Shell Plchalted some oil production and began evacuating workers from a U.S. Gulf of Mexico platform, the company said on Friday, as a new tropical storm flared.Beta, the 23rd named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed in the Bay of Campeche and was forecast to strengthen steadily and become a hurricane by Sunday off the Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said.Shell said it was removing non-essential employees from its Perdido platform in the western Gulf of Mexico