Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Prepares to Shut Saturday Afternoon

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Aug 2008

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. oil import terminal, plans to shut its marine operations in the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow as Tropical Storm Gustav may strengthen as it approaches the region.
``We are preparing our facility and our intent is to shut just our marine operations tomorrow afternoon,'' said Barb Hestermann, a spokeswoman for the LOOP, as the port is known. ``

We will continue to make deliveries from storage by pipeline. I don't foresee us having to stop making deliveries.'' 
The port is located about 20 miles off the Louisiana coast and handles about 1.1 million to 1.2 million barrels of crude oil a day. It consists of mooring buoys, platforms and pipelines. The onshore pipeline network moves oil from storage tanks to refineries.
Gustav, which passed over Jamaica last night, had sustained winds of 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour as of 11 a.m. Miami time Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site. Its projected path shows the storm hitting Louisiana west of New Orleans as early as Sept. 2.
The Loop stopped making shipments from its onshore storage tanks in Louisiana to pipelines and refineries because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
``Katrina was the only time in the last several years that we had to suspend deliveries,'' Hestermann said.

Source: Bloomberg