Shell Found `Moderate' Damage to Offshore Oil Installations

By Tara Patel

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, said it has found some ``moderate'' damage to offshore oil installations following Hurricane Ike and no major structural damage to any platforms or drilling rigs.

The company, which is based in The Hague, has redeployed 175 people so far to offshore oil and gas operations and they are assessing damage and have started repairs, the company said in a series of updates posted on its web site.

The workers sent so far are establishing power and communications and preparing to ramp up production, the statements said, adding that before the storm it had 1,400 people at the installations.

Separately, Shell said it is unable to predict when its Deer Park, Texas refinery will resume normal operations. Varying levels of basic utilities such as steam, air, water and electricity are in service, one of the updates said.

Shell also provided updates of operations at joint venture refineries with Saudi Arabia's state oil company.

There continues to be no electricity at the Motiva Port Arthur plant, the company said, adding that it also doesn't know when this refinery will restart.

Motiva Update

Shell said the Motiva Norco refinery is working at 60 percent capacity and ``continues to adjust production up and down based on available resources,'' the statement said.

The Motiva Covent refinery ``is not yet able to make finished gasoline and other products,'' Shell said, adding that ``initialization of some units continues.''

Operations were shut in advance of Hurricane Ike, which plowed into the Texas coast yesterday. Ike was the first storm to hit a major U.S. metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

A total of 14 Texas and Louisiana refineries, with combined crude processing capacity of 3.57 million barrels a day, are closed because of Ike.

At the retailing end of operations, Shell said between 30 percent and 40 percent of Shell-branded stations in Houston and Beaumont are open and another 20 will open later today, according to one of the updates. ``We are making deliveries as quickly as possible to stations as they reopen,'' the update said. The company said ``fuel supply in the area is adequate at the terminals.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net