UpdateStorm to miss US Gulf oil production - Shell

(recasts lead, updates throughout)

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Oil major Shell has concluded its precautionary evacuation of personnel in the Gulf of Mexico as it became clear that Tropical Storm Fay was not likely to disrupt production, the company said on Monday.

Nonetheless, Shell had evacuated 425 personnel, mostly from its operations in the eastern Gulf, the company said.

Shell does not expect any disruptions of its production, and the evacuated personnel were not essential to drilling and production, it said.

Tropical Storm Fay lifted oil prices while it remained unclear where it was heading, but by 15:05 GMT September NYMEX crude had hit a low of $112.36/bbl, a loss of $1.41/bbl from the previous close of $113.77/bbl, before recovering to around $112.60/bbl.

At the same time, October Brent crude on ICE Futures was trading around $111.35/bbl, having hit a low of $111.01/bbl, a loss of $1.54/bbl from the previous close.

Ongoing tension between Georgia and Russia and the closure of a rail line between Baku in Azerbaijan and the Black Sea port of Batumi that transports 50,000-70,000 bbl/day of crude had added to earlier upward pressure. 

As of 10:00 Houston time (15:00 GMT), the storm's centre was over the northern cost of Cuba, about 65 miles (100 km) east-northeast of Havana, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Fay had maximum sustained winds of almost 60 miles/hour.

Fay is moving north-northwest at about 13 miles/hour, meteorologists said. It was expected to be near the Florida Keys within 12 hours before turning north and becoming a hurricane.

Tropical storm and hurricane warnings were in effect for parts of Florida, meteorologists said.

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

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