Crude oil and natural gas rose as Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and ConocoPhillips evacuated drilling rigs before the arrival of Gustav, forecast to become the worst Gulf of Mexico hurricane since Katrina. Shell will pull 870 rig workers in the next two days, on top of 400 already moved. ConocoPhilips stopped output at its Magnolia platform and Exxon Mobil Corp. is preparing refineries along the coast for the storm. Gustav may strengthen to become a hurricane as it enters the Gulf of Mexico, home to 26 percent of U.S. production, on Sept. 1, the National Hurricane Center said.
``It's the most dangerous storm of the season,'' said Carsten Fritsch, a Commerzbank AG analyst in Frankfurt. ``The question will be the strength of the hurricane. Some say it will be as serious as Katrina, but that's the worst case scenario.''