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To: russet who wrote (4412)	10/2/2002 4:15:33 PM
From: Scott Mc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11633

Its a very serious situation and a huge storm. 10/02 14:40 Hurricane Closes Louisiana Ports; U.S. Gulf Oil Rigs Evacuated By Stephen Voss New Orleans, Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Oil and natural-gas producers halted output, refineries and power utilities prepared for possible flooding and high winds and Louisiana ports closed as Hurricane Lili moved toward the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest oil-import terminal in the U.S., stopped receiving tankers late yesterday and doesn't expect to open until Friday, when forecasters expect Lili to be inland, heading toward Tennessee. Ocean Energy Inc. and Stone Energy Corp. stopped oil and gas production from platforms as they completed evacuations of sea-rig workers. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for one-quarter of U.S. oil and gas output. Tropical Storm Isidore hindered workers last week. ``The impact as far as production figures will probably be close to the same for Lili as it was for Isidore unless we get some significant damage impact from Lili, which is a stronger storm,'' said Chuck Schoennagel, deputy director of the Gulf of Mexico regional office of the government's Mineral Management Service, which tracks energy production. At its peak Thursday, Isidore had stopped the daily production of 1.44 million barrels of oil and 8.48 billion cubic feet of gas and prompted the evacuation of 596 production rigs and platforms. Evacuations caused by Lili as of early yesterday afternoon stopped daily output of 374,400 barrels of oil and 5.48 billion cubic feet a day of gas, the government agency said. `Quicker, Stronger' The hurricane, currently 325 miles south of New Orleans, ``is moving through quicker, but it's stronger,'' Schoennagel said. Lili, with winds of almost 135 miles an hour, was ranked by the National Hurricane Center as a ``dangerous'' Category 4 hurricane on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale. ``Additional strengthening is possible this afternoon and tonight,'' the center said in its latest advisory. Entergy Corp., which owns the utility in New Orleans, expects the high winds to damage power lines from eastern Texas to Arkansas. ``We are expecting extended outages,'' said Ann Jenkins, a spokeswoman for Cleco Corp., a utility with 257,000 customers in Louisiana. ``Based on the forecasts, this may be the worst storm since Hurricane Andrew 10 years ago.'' Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, causing about $25 billion worth of damage in Florida and $1 billion in Louisiana, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. Port Fourchon Port Fourchon closed earlier today. It's the largest port serving deep-water drillers and a storage point for oil from the Loop terminal, which can import 1.1 million barrels of oil a day. Some oil refiners began reducing operations and sent non- essential staff home as they positioned water-pumping equipment for possible flooding. Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it's reducing output at two Louisiana refineries at Norco and Convent. Total Fina Elf SA's Atofina Petrochemicals said it's starting to close its oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Many oil and gas companies announced rig evacuations earlier this week, including Shell, the biggest producer in the gulf, as well as BP Plc, ChevronTexaco Corp., ConocoPhillips and Apache Corp.