Oil companies prepare for Hurricane Ike in US Gulf

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Energy companies are delaying the restart of offshore oil and natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and preparing for another round of evacuations as a second giant storm threatens to batter the region.

The one-two punch from Gustav and Hurricane Ike will likely carve deeply into U.S. energy inventories in the coming weeks, potentially raising fuel prices, as the source of a quarter of domestic crude and 15 percent of the United States' natural gas lies dormant for a fresh blow of high winds and waves.

Energy companies Shell Oil (RDSa.L), Anadarko (APC.N) and others began evacuating workers ahead of Ike, which struck Cuba late Sunday on a track that could take it into the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and into the Gulf Coast by the weekend.

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), meanwhile, said it was slowing down efforts to restore offshore oil and natural gas production in the wake of Gustav due to the new threat from Ike.

U.S. crude oil climbed as high as $109.89 per barrel early Monday on worries about Ike, before a stronger dollar sent crude down under $105 by midday.

Ike's arrival comes slightly more than a week after Hurricane Gustav crossed the same waters and triggered a nearly complete shutdown of the region's energy production.

Some 79.8 percent of the 1.3 million barrels per day of normal oil output from the Gulf of Mexico remained shut in as of Sunday, along with 70 percent of its 7.4 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas output, the U.S. government reported Sunday.

That reflected a slow recovery from the storm's peak impact a week ago, particularly compared with the resumption of operations at coastal oil refineries that were also battened down ahead of Gustav.

Three refineries with a combined capacity of 330,000 bpd, amounting to 1.8 pct of U.S. capacity, were still completely shut on Monday. At the peak of Gustav's impact, 15 refineries representing more than 15 percent of U.S. refining capacity were shut down.