BP, Shell evacuating crews as storm nears

HOUSTON - BP and Royal Dutch Shell, the biggest oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico, are removing crews from some offshore platforms in the region as a precaution because of Tropical Storm Alex.

BP removed nonessential workers from its Atlantis, Mad Dog, and Holstein oil-production platforms in the western part of the gulf, company spokesman David Nicholas said Sunday in Houston. He said output wasn't affected.

London-based BP P.L.C.'s response to a record U.S. oil spill in northern and eastern parts of the gulf also was said to be unaffected.

Shell evacuated 430 people and idled production from its Auger and Brutus platforms, according to a statement on the company's website.

Meanwhile, what appeared to be oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon rig leak washed ashore in quantity for the first time Sunday on the Mississippi Coast.

"The amount of oil moving into Mississippi waters has greatly increased in the last several days, and the prevailing winds that cause the oil and its residue to move in our direction are predicted to continue, at least until the middle of the week," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement.

Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, weakened to a tropical depression Sunday as it moved across Belize and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, dumping rain that left at least four people dead across the region.

Alex is expected to regain strength in the coming days as it moves over warmer water in the gulf and possibly become a hurricane headed toward Mexico's Caribbean coast, well away from the area where BP is trying to stop its big oil leak, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

On Sunday, Alex soaked parts of Central America and the Yucatan with torrential downpours, forcing hundreds of tourists to flee resort islands.

Winds were at 60 m.p.h. when the storm made landfall in Belize on Saturday night, but it had decreased to 35 m.p.h. by Sunday.

The hurricane center said that Alex was expected to become a tropical storm again Monday and that rain would likely keep falling on southern Mexico and Guatemala until Monday afternoon.

BP, whose oil spill from a ruptured well is the largest spill in U.S. history, did not slow any response efforts because of the storm, spokesman John Curry said.

A cap has been placed over the blown-out well, directing some of the oil to a surface ship where it is being collected or burned. Other ships are drilling two relief wells, projected to be done by August, which are considered the best hope to end the leak.

The company collected 7,160 barrels of leaking oil and burned an additional 3,950 barrels of crude and 24.6 million cubic feet of natural gas between noon and midnight Saturday, according to BP's website.