The impending storm prompted authorities in the Dutch port of Rotterdam to say they would lower a giant storm surge barrier for the first time since its construction in the 1990s.

No boat would be allowed to enter or leave between 2000 GMT on Thursday and 0500 GMT on Friday, the authorities said, predicting the measure would affect some 60 passenger and freight ships.

The Netherlands also stepped up surveillance of seawalls along its coast for the first time since 1976. One third of the Dutch land mass is below sea level.

Britain's Met Office warned of gusts of up to 90 miles (145 kilometres) per hour for the Orkney and Shetland islands off northern Scotland, and said the combination of high tides and strong winds could play havoc in the south.

"The height of the surge we are expecting on Friday morning happens around once every 20 years or so," said Stewart Wortley, the head of storm tide forecasting.

The forecasts led the British government to issue a series of flooding warnings for southern England.

"We are concerned that the current weather and tides could lead to flooding especially in the Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Broads area," said Environment Agency regional director Paul Woodcock.

There were also flood warnings in Germany, particularly around the Elbe and Ems rivers.

Norwegian oil production was expected to be cut by 10 percent, or 220,000 barrels per day, after Britain's BP closed its Valhall platform and US firm ConocoPhillips planned to shut down five platforms in the Ekofisk oilfield.

The closures come as the price of a barrel of oil hovered around record highs of 95-96 dollars a barrel on international markets.

Forecasters and oil company officials said they expected the situation to improve quickly after the main impact of the storm overnight, but a BP spokesman said he expected the Valhall platform to be down "for a few days".

"The weather outlook for Friday looks slightly better," ConocoPhillips spokesman in Norway Stig Kvendseth told AFP. "It won't take us long to get started again."

The Ekofisk field normally produces 140,000 bpd. One platform there has already closed, one is in the process of being closed and preparations are underway to close three others, Kvendseth said.

BP has already evacuated a group of its workers from the Valhall platform, which has totally suspended its 80,000 bpd production.

Norway is the world's fifth largest exporter of crude. In September it produced 2.179 million barrels per day.

burs-ag/smc

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com