Oil companies pull workers on threat from storm Fay

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N) pulled nonessential workers from the eastern and central Gulf of Mexico due to the threat of Tropical Storm Fay, but offshore production was unaffected, the companies said on Sunday.

Shell said about 200 workers were evacuated on Sunday from the eastern Gulf, the same number the company evacuated from that region on Saturday. Marathon said the number evacuated from the central Gulf was not immediately available.

Both companies described the evacuations as precautionary in the event the storm may bear towards offshore platforms as it progresses into the Gulf, which U.S. forecasters said should take place Monday or Tuesday.

On Sunday, Fay was expected to avoid most of the offshore production areas in the Gulf and instead strike the Gulf Coast of Florida on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast.

Some computer models, however, predict Fay may enter eastern Gulf production areas before making landfall on coast of Alabama or Mississippi.

Other companies including the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC, which operates the only U.S. deepwater oil port, said on Sunday they were monitoring Fay's progress through the Caribbean Sea toward the Gulf.

The sixth cyclone of what experts predict will be an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season, Fay may be near hurricane strength as it approaches Cuba on Sunday, and at hurricane strength over the Florida Keys and off Florida's west coast after that, U.S forecasters said.

Fay is the third storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season to menace U.S. offshore oil and natural gas production, which provides 25 percent of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of U.S. natural gas production.