A tropical cyclone approaching Australia’s Pilbara iron ore mining belt coast had intensified and winds of more than 250kph were expected when it crossed the coast yesterday afternoon local time, the weather bureau said.
Tropical Cyclone Lua has been upgraded to a Category 4, the second most severe on the Australian scale.
It was expected to cross the West Australian coast in a sparsely populated area north of Port Hedland at about 2pm, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Heavy rainfall and a very dangerous storm tide with damaging waves and flooding were also expected.
Photo: EPA
Australia’s main iron ore terminals, which are among the largest in the world, were closed on Friday as the cyclone in the Indian Ocean swept toward the Pilbara.
Global miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have major iron ore operations in the area.
Supply concerns because of the cyclone along with recent gains in Chinese steel prices helped spur iron ore prices to the highest in nearly four months on Friday.
Residents in the area around Port Hedland were on high alert and had been warned to take immediate shelter from the cyclone which was set to be the worst to hit Australia since Cyclone Yasi devastated the state of Queensland last year, forecaster Neil Bennett said.
The last of the vessels moored at Port Hedland, used by BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Iron, set sail early on Friday and the port was closed.
In all, about 400 million tonnes of iron ore passes through the ports in a year.
Operations at two ports used by Rio Tinto, Dampier and Cape Lambert, wound down on Friday, while mining and its rail hauling line remained open, said a spokesman for Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest iron ore producer.
BHP said it was prepared to shut operations if necessary.
“If there is any material impact on our production, we will report it in our quarterly production report,” BHP said in a statement.
Chevron said on Thursday it was evacuating non-essential personnel from Barrow Island, 70km off the coast, where it operates oil production facilities and is building the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
The company said it was also evacuating personnel related to its Wheatstone LNG project near the coastal town of Onslow.
On Wednesday, Woodside Petroleum and Apache Corp shut several of their oil fields off Australia’s northwest coast as Lua approached. Santos said it had stopped production at its Mutineer Exeter 8,000 barrels-a-day project.
The cyclone has stopped production of about a quarter of Australia’s daily oil production of about 390,000 barrels.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS