UpdateLouisiana declares storm emergency

28 August 2008 01:07  [Source: ICIS news]

(Adds updates and background throughout)

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in advance of Tropical Storm Gustav, which was expected to strengthen into a hurricane and could hit the US Gulf coast.

The storm could make landfall on the Louisiana coast on 1 September, according to the emergency declaration.

Jindal also announced the mobilization of 3,000 National Guard with as many 5,000 call-ups possible depending on the course of the storm, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Evacuations from New Orleans could begin as early as Saturday if the storm continues on its present course, according to the newspaper.

Federal emergency, security and military officials also began wide-scale preparations for Gustav's anticipated landfall.

BP joined Shell on Wednesday in saying it was evacuating personnel from offshore platforms ahead of Gustav.

The storm was expected to regain hurricane strength by Thursday or Friday after it had weakened over Haiti, and it could enter the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend.

“We are monitoring Tropical Storm Gustav,” BP said. “Production has not been impacted.”

Shell said it evacuated nearly 400 people on Wednesday from its Gulf of Mexico operations.

“We anticipate bringing approximately 270 personnel to shore Thursday,” Shell said. “We expect to evacuate the remaining 600 personnel on Friday and Saturday.”

Shell continued: “We are working toward a full evacuation of Shell-operated assets in the gulf, based on predictions that Tropical Storm Gustav will strengthen again into a hurricane and cross the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.

“Given the evacuation of personnel and forecast track, we expect production from our east and west GoM [Gulf of Mexico] assets to begin to be impacted, as early as Thursday.”

ExxonMobil said it had not made evacuations from its offshore operations as of mid-Wednesday but was monitoring the situation. ExxonMobil said there has been no impact on production.

Meanwhile, US petrochemicals manufacturers said they also were keeping a close eye on Gustav.

Dan Borne, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association, said chemical producers throughout the state were meeting and making storm contingency plans.

Dow Chemical was watching and monitoring Gustav and has hurricane plans in place that could be implemented, depending on the direction of the storm, a company spokesman said.

“All of our sites on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coast are operational at this point,” Dow spokesman David Winder said. “Depending on where the storm goes, each plant has a hurricane plan that it will enact.”

Much of the US energy and petrochemical production is clustered along the Gulf coast. In August and September of 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita greatly disrupted refinery and plant production.

Gustav weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm with winds up to 50 miles/hour (85km/hour) after it struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it killed 11 people, according to news reports.

Gustav was located about 90 miles (150km) southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba as of 16:00 Houston time (21:00 GMT), according to the National Hurricane Center.

(Additional reporting by Steven McGinn and Leela Landress)

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