Hurricane Ike is the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane and third major hurricane and the second category 4 of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.A Cape Verde-type hurricane, it started as a tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa near the end of August, then tracked south of Cape Verde and slowly developed. On September 1, it became a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands.^[2][3] By the early morning hours of September 4, Ike was a category 4 hurricane, hitting its peak of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a pressure of 935 mbar (27.61 inHg). That made it the most intense storm so far in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.

As of Tuesday morning, September 9, Ike was expected to cross Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico. It was predicted to make landfall in southern Texas or northern Mexico early on the morning of Saturday, September 13.

World News : Energy Firms Prepare for Ike!!

With Hurricane Ike on the horizon, energy companies in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico are bringing employees onshore again and preparing to halt production just days after they began restaffing following Hurricane Gustav.

Crude-oil and natural-gas producers were in the middle of restoring operations after Gustav, which forced the shut-in of virtually all output before the hurricane made landfall Sept. 1 just southwest of New Orleans.

Oil-output volumes stayed flat on Monday compared with the previous day, with about 20% of U.S. Gulf output restored, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Gas output continued growing, though, with 36% of capacity back on line.

Hurricane Ike is on a projected path to strike the southern Texas coastline not far from Corpus Christi and its cluster of oil refineries Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It is too early to say where exactly Ike will make landfall, and the five-day forecast track shows that it could strike anywhere from northern Mexico to Mississippi. Forecasters said that Ike -- a Category 1 storm over Cuba on Monday -- could regain strength after it enters the warm waters of the Gulf on Tuesday night.

At this point, any of the 717 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be vulnerable to the fury of Ike. However, Independence Hub -- a key natural-gas production platform that has yet to restart after Gustav -- as well as other platforms with significant production volumes in the eastern and central Gulf could be less likely to get a direct hit this time.

Production shutdowns will further stress the U.S. oil supply chain, which continues to strain in the wake of Gustav, and could pressure prices higher. The U.S. Department of Energy said Monday it granted a loan of 250,000 barrels of crude to Marathon Oil Corp. for Midwest refineries that had to cut rates due to pipeline disruptions.

Light, sweet crude oil for October delivery settled 11 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $106.34 a barrel on Monday. A stronger dollar weighed on oil futures, which earlier in the day traded as high as $109.89 on Ike concerns.

Mandatory evacuations and widespread power outages hobbled refineries in Louisiana but left the processing hubs in Texas unscathed.

Now, those refineries near Houston, which include Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown plant -- the largest refinery in the U.S. -- are up to bat. ExxonMobil said Baytown and its Beaumont, Texas, refinery are taking preliminary precautions ahead of Ike.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, operator of the largest oil platform in the Gulf in terms of production, evacuated 150 employees Sunday and plans to remove the remaining 500 by Wednesday, when it will also completely shut output. Other players in the area, such as BP PLC, Anadarko Corp. and ConocoPhillips, began evacuating nonessential workers.

Exxon Mobil said the restoration of its operations in the Gulf will wind down as Hurricane Ike approaches. The oil giant was in the process of restarting production and assessing damage to its platforms after Hurricane Gustav.

Apache Corp., another large Gulf producer, began evacuating personnel from its operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which are currently shut in, and won't resume production before Ike moves through the area, the company said.

In other commodity markets on Monday:

RICE: Futures rose to their daily exchange-imposed limit on fears of more storm damage from Hurricane Ike. The U.S. crop already faces a delayed harvest because of Hurricane Gustav, and now Ike is expected to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. Chicago Board of Trade September rice, which is trading without limits because it is in delivery, gained 55 cents to $19.45 per hundredweight; most active November rice rose the daily limit of 50 cents to settle at $19.60.

ORANGE JUICE: Prices fell their daily exchange-imposed limit of 10 cents a pound, as Hurricane Ike is forecast to pass south of citrus regions of Florida. ICE Futures' September contract for U.S. frozen concentrated orange juice settled 10 cents lower at 98.50 cents a pound. Most active November FCOJ also settled down 10 cents to $1.0255.

World News : Energy Firms Prepare for Ike!!