About half the US petrochemical industry is based in the possible landfall zone for Rita, a major hurricane that has sparked fears of a new calamity just weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

"It's certainly the region of the most important concentration of chemical companies perhaps in the world, with over 100 companies in Texas," said Dorothy Kellogg of the Chemical Market Associates, an industry consulting group.

Tom Natan, director of research of the National Environmental Trust, said the industry may not be ready for a powerful storm like Rita.

"Between Freeport (Texas) and Louisiana ... we have 87 plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and petroleum box storage facilities. It's a lot of plants and they generate waste containing 1.3 billion pounds (650,000 tons) of chemicals," he said. "And you don't want that to leak out."

Natan said the facilities are designed to withstand a hit from a category three hurricane, not a powerful category five storm, and that means a question mark for a lot of dangerous chemicals.

"There are a lot of questions about whether the chemicals are properly stored," he said.

"Any leak is a potential problem. The problem with oil chemicals is that it goes into the water, then in the sediment. Then you have a contaminated soil, which gives you dust that people can breathe."

Kellogg argued that the companies have emergency plans in place.

"In each company, there is an emergency plan to bring each factory under control," she said. "The priority is to protect the employees, and second, to protect the operation."

Kellogg said that with the chemical industry in Louisiana, "Katrina had no significant consequences, so we can hope it will be the same with Rita."

The Texas coast is home to factories from a number of foreign as well as domestic firms.

German firms Bayer, BASF and Lanxess said they were shutting or reducing operations in Texas due to the storm threat.

Bayer evacuated most of its employees from its plant in Baytown, near Houston.

BASF, the world's biggest chemical firm, shut its Freeport facility and evacuated the 600 employees there. BASF was considering the same for its plant in Port Arthur, Texas..

Lanxess closed its Texas plants at Baytown and Orange and took "all necessary steps" to secure the facilities.

US giant Exxon Mobil said its refineries and chemical manufacturing units in Beaumont and the Baytown areas of Texas were "in the process of a safe and systematic shutdown of operations."

"As safety is our first priority, we have taken all precautions to minimize impact to community and employees throughout the shutdown process," the company said.

"Only essential personnel are on site to ensure a safe and orderly shutdown. They will be released and helped to a safe location as soon as an orderly shutdown has been accomplished."

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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