Shell Shut Egyptian Offices, Evacuate

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Transocean Ltd. were among companies shutting offices or evacuating workers from Egypt as the effects of protests against President Hosni Mubarak rippled through the oil industry.

Brent futures traded in London, the benchmark price for two-thirds of the world’s oil, surged above $100 a barrel today for the first time in 28 months on concern anti-government demonstrations would close the Suez Canal and adjacent Sumed pipeline, which together can haul more than 4 million barrels of oil a day.

For Egypt, home to Africa’s sixth-biggest oil reserves, crude and natural gas are the biggest source of export income, accounting for about 12 percent of gross domestic product. Refiners in the U.S., the world’s biggest gasoline market, would have difficulty replacing Persian Gulf oil shipments, said Louis Gagliardi, managing director of energy at Hedgeye Risk Management in New Haven, Connecticut.

“The Persian Gulf sends 1.7 million barrels a day to the U.S., and if that ever got interrupted, it would be hard to replace,” Gagliardi said today in a telephone interview. “Go around the world and there’s no way to make up those barrels.”

BP Plc, the largest foreign investor in Egypt, made plans to evacuate the families of expatriate workers as Schlumberger Ltd. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. began relocating staff.