Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc plan to finish shutting oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Enbridge Energy Partners LP will close pipelines as Hurricane Gustav gains strength and moves toward the region.
Shell and BP aimed to complete the shutdown of the equivalent of 800,000 barrels a day of oil production today. Enbridge said it will halt Gulf gas shipments effective 9 a.m. local time. Oil producers have shut at least 6.6 percent of output in the Gulf of Mexico, according to U.S. government figures at midday yesterday. Shell plans to halt 510,000 barrels a day and BP said it will stop about 290,000 barrels.
Fields in the Gulf produce 1.3 million barrels a day of oil, about a quarter of U.S. production, and 7.4 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, 14 percent of the total, government data show. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 closed 95 percent of regional offshore output and, along with Hurricane Rita, idled about 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity.
``We have to wait and see how this storm strengthens, but the industry can fare better than it did three years ago,'' Sara Banaszak, senior economist at the American Petroleum Institute, said on Bloomberg Television. Energy companies installed back-up electricity and purchased emergency supplies to avoid the kinds of disruptions caused by Katrina and Rita, she said.
Oil Prices
Crude oil futures in New York fell 13 cents to $115.46 a barrel in New York yesterday on speculation supplies will be adequate to meet demand after the storm passes. Natural gas futures fell 10.7 cents to $7.943 per million British thermal units on the exchange.
When a hurricane hits, it can curtail demand for oil and natural gas by damaging refineries, lowering temperatures, cutting power lines and reducing the need for power generation and closing businesses, said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston.
``The question is, where does it hit, and how much demand does it take out when it does that,'' Cooper said.
Energy producers have idled 6.6 percent of oil output and 1.8 percent of natural-gas production in the Gulf because of Gustav, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.
Personnel from 17 rigs and six production platforms had been evacuated as of 12:30 p.m. yesterday in Washington, according to the statement. The shutdowns halted 86,000 barrels of oil and 136 million cubic feet of gas a day.
Storm Forecast
Gustav, now a Category 3 hurricane with winds of almost 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour, picked up speed as it headed toward western Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center in said in a bulletin. The storm was about 255 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba at 5 a.m. local time.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil company, began evacuating non-essential personnel from oil and natural-gas platforms expected to be in the path of the storm. Other companies with operations connected to its platforms have shut in ``minimal'' production, the company said in a statement.
Exxon Mobil hasn't cut output at refineries and chemical plants along the Gulf coast, though it's preparing them to weather the storm, the company said.
Chevron Evacuations
Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. energy company, began evacuating essential personnel from oil and natural-gas platforms. Some production has been halted because of the shutdown of pipelines operated by other companies, San Ramon, California-based Chevron said yesterday on its Web site.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said it plans a full shutdown of all its drilling rigs and operated facilities by tomorrow. It plans to evacuate all non-essential personnel by today and all of its 600 employees and contractors currently working in the Gulf by tomorrow. It pumps more than 150,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent from the Gulf.
ConocoPhillips said it suspended drilling in southern Louisiana Aug. 28. It expected to complete the evacuation of Magnolia, its only offshore platform in the Gulf, by today. It shut the platform Aug. 28.
Swift Energy Co. planned to halt production from Cote Blanche Island yesterday, and said remaining output will be shut-in by tomorrow if storm conditions dictate, according to a company statement.
Helicopter operator ERA Helicopters LLC said it will complete its evacuations of offshore rigs and platforms today. It said evacuations for Hess Corp., Noble Corp., Helix Energy Solutions Group and ATP Gas & Oil Corp. were under way.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation's biggest oil import terminal, is preparing to shut its marine operations today, said Barb Hestermann, a spokeswoman for the LOOP, as the port is known. The port will continue to make deliveries by pipeline from storage facilities, she said.
Murphy Oil Corp., Devon Energy Corp., and Apache Corp. were also working on evacuation plans.
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