Hurricane forecasted to strike Louisiana; to keep oil, energy firms on their toes

01-Sep-08

U.S. National Hurricane Center's reports of storm Gustav hitting Jamaica with heavy rains and winds of 65 miles per hour on Friday kept the oil and energy companies having refineries and chemical plants along the Gulf of Mexico on their toes. Gustav is forecasted to strike Louisiana as a hurricane by Tuesday, Sep 2. While the production of Exxon Mobil Corp (which has several refineries and the chemical plants along the Gulf of Mexico) was not affected till Friday, the company said that it was prepared for an evacuation of offshore personnel from its platforms, particularly those not needed to maintain production. Besides, US no.2 energy firm, Chevron Corp has already begun the mass departure of its workers from some of its platforms along the Gulf and another leading firm, ConocoPhillips had closed its only platform (located southwest of New Orleans) on Aug 27. Europe's no.2 oil company, BP Plc also announced that it's off shore installations did not suffer any production; however, it was evacuating non-essential workers from such installations.