Hurricane Preparation Highlights

Read what Shell and Motiva have done to prepare for hurricane season. 

In order to maintain business operations in the event of a hurricane, Shell and Motiva have formalized an Operational Support Team to ensure optimum speed and efficiency in decision-making.

Shell and Motiva have invested in contingency plans including, but not limited to:

• Mobile base camps, fallback sites, muster points and contingency sites to protect and assist employees and their families that have been evacuated while also allowing teams to work virtually to maintain business continuity.
• Toll-free numbers have been established to provide employees with updates, check in with supervisors and ask questions. 

Shell and Motiva have enhanced communication systems for employees:

• Key individuals have been provided laptops and personal communication devices such as Blackberries™ to better facilitate emergency communications. 
• Hurricane Internet sites, intranet sites and an electronic employee newsletter are used to communicate hurricane messages to employees.       

• Mooring system upgrades and design changes for anchored mobile offshore drilling units include more anchor lines, polyester-mooring lines and new anchor designs or the use of suction piles instead of anchors. This should reduce anchor drag damage to pipelines.
• New and strengthened designs on hold-down systems for the derrick and drilling rig superstructure installed on floating and fixed structures will help minimize damage from overturned rigs.
• Enhanced communication systems for offshore facilities with satellites, fiber optics and improved microwave frequencies.
• Shell has routed some pipelines out of slide areas that have developed over the past couple of years, and provided additional stabilization and protection via increased pipe weight and additional burial depth. 
• Shell will pursue options to rapidly restore production such as alternate processing plants, pipeline connections, barging and tankering. 

• Shell and Motiva manufacturing facilities and critical terminals have been pre-wired to use satellite phones or trailers for two-way communication when necessary. Some sites have also added VoIP and cell phones based in markets outside of hurricane prone areas. 
•  Electric power is also a priority at the terminals and critical facilities have been pre-wired in 2006 for generators, so they are able to quickly restore fuel deliveries following a storm.
• Shell has elevated the control rooms at pipeline management facilities that could be subject to flooding from the Mississippi River Delta up to 25 feet above sea level

• Shell branded stations along evacuation routes will be a priority for deliveries. 
• Shell and Motiva have also established a voluntary “keep fill” program to maximize the amount of fuel available in storage tanks at participating retail locations throughout the hurricane season.   
• Shell and Motiva will coordinate with local emergency response teams around manufacturing and distribution terminals during a crisis. Local officials have agreed to provide police escorts so that tank trucks can get through traffic to refuel affected areas. 
• Shell and Motiva have secured generators for the hurricane season that can be deployed rapidly and strategically to impacted regions.