Gulf Oil, Gas Hurricane Evacuations to Begin Tomorrow
By Barbara Powell and Aaron Clark
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Evacuations of offshore oil and gas rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico will begin tomorrow in preparation for Hurricane Gustav, which may become the strongest storm to hit the region in almost three years.
Transocean Inc., the world's largest offshore oil driller, has begun suspending operations in the Gulf. Royal Dutch Shell Plc is ``making logistical arrangements to evacuate staff who are not essential to production or drilling operations,'' spokesman Destin Singleton said in an e-mailed statement today.
``Shell generally leads off'' the evacuations, said Jim Shugart, executive vice president of ERA Helicopters LLC, which ferries workers to and from offshore facilities. ``They have by far the majority of workers out there and they figure it takes them four to four and a half days to evacuate everybody.''
Offshore platforms in the Gulf are responsible for about 14 percent of U.S. natural gas production and a fifth of the nation's oil output. About two-thirds of the oil the U.S. uses every day is imported.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation's biggest oil import terminal, is operating normally, said Barb Hestermann, a spokeswoman for the LOOP, as the port is known.
The port, located about 20 miles off the Louisiana coast, has the capacity to receive 1.1 million to 1.2 million barrels of oil a day. The port also handles some domestic offshore production.
``We are going to have to keep an eye on the intensity of the hurricane and the course it takes,'' Hestermann said. ``I don't like the most recent forecasts.''
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