Shell Evacuates Workers From Gulf on Storm Threat

By Nesa Subrahmaniyan

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, said it has evacuated about 400 workers from its oil and natural-gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico because of Tropical Storm Gustav.

The company will move another 270 workers today and plans to evacuate the remaining 600 personnel tomorrow and Saturday, Robin Lebovitz, a Shell spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

``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,'' she said.

Production from Shell's east and west Gulf of Mexico fields could be cut as early as today, Lebovitz said in the statement.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, said production hasn't been affected and none of its workers have been evacuated so far.

The company said it is preparing for ``heavy weather associated'' with Gustav along its Gulf Coast oil and gas operations and assessing which platforms may be in the way of the storm and also identifying workers that may need to be evacuated. The company's refineries are operating normally while safety procedures have been initiated, it said on its Web Site.

To contact the reporter of this story: Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Singapore at nesas@bloomberg.net.