Insurers spared direct hit by Ivan
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Insurers breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as Hurricane Ivan skirted New Orleans as well as the heart of the Gulf of Mexico&#39;s oil region, saving the companies billions of dollars in claims.
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Hurricane Ivan spared Jamaica a direct hit yesterday, suddenly turning away from the island&#39;s shore, but the fierce rains and winds at its edges still killed 11 people, collapsed houses and washed out roads.
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Association of British Insurers warns that cover may not be offered to up to 1m homes built on floodplains
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Insurers benefit from a quiet hurricane season.
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BULL BAY, Jamaica Sept. 12, 2004 - Hurricane Ivan lost some strength as it bore down on the Cayman Islands and Cuba Sunday but was still capable of causing tremendous damage with winds near 155 mph.
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Stocks are seen opening little changed  on Monday as crude prices remain high, but insurers may dip on  worries about their potential liabilities after a hurricane  struck Florida on Friday.
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After Hurricane Ivan pummeled a wide swath of land along the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, some US insurers swamped by the third major hurricane of 2004 might find their profits gone with the wind.
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How will companies and investors fare if the storm spawns moderate damage?
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At least 9 persons were reported to have died on the Caribbean Island of Grenada, following a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan. A report from the BBC, delayed because of damage to communications facilities, said
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MIAMI - Insured losses in the United States from Hurricane Ivanâs assault on the Gulf Coast could run from $2 billion to $7 billion, a risk assessment company said Thursday as it slightly reduced its estimate of the cost of the deadly storm.
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European insurers face new costs and travel firms could lose business after tsunami waves killed more than 21,500 in Asia this weekend, but the financial impact is expected to be limited compared with other ...
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Insurers are braced to pay out about  $7 billion in claims for devastation caused by Hurricane  Charley, making the storm the second most costly after  Hurricane Andrew, industry and government officials said on  Monday.
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Many homeowners in the Orlando area suffered a double blow when hurricanes Charley and Frances struck in quick succession. Now, they&#39;re smarting from a financial one-two punch - two insurance deductibles.
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St. Paul Travelers Co., the second-largest business insurer in the United States, said Wednesday that it estimates losses from Hurricane Ivan to be about $94 million, and expects the losses to cut third-quarter earnings by about 14 cents per share.
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Hurricane Ivan looks set to cost tour operators as they race to get customers out of harm's way, though future bookings may not suffer too much.
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US property and casualty insurers have paid out $21.3 billion for eight catastrophes damage, including hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, according to the data of the Jersey-based Insurance Services Office Inc.
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Hurricane Ivan spared the critical Gulf Coast refining belt, but oil prices rose anyway Thursday on fears a new storm brewing in the Caribbean will delay tankers carrying imported crude to U.S. ports.Ivan swept east of major refineries, tank farms and other facilities in Louisiana and Texas. It also bypassed the biggest concentrations of offshore oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.ChevronTexaco's Pascagoula, Miss., refinery was the closest to the hurricane's path and remained closed Thursday. "The preliminary (damage) assessment is somewhat positive," said spokesman Steve Renfroe, who said the company had not determined when it could restart the plant.But on Ivan's heels Tropical Storm Jeanne knocked out a portion of production at a refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands and barreled toward Puerto Rico.As a result, oil for October delivery rose 30 cents to &#36;43.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Energy companies feared Ivan would make landfall in Louisiana or Texas and damage refineries there. The Gulf Coast accounts for nearly half of U.S. daily refining capacity of 16 million barrels. U.S. refiners are running near capacity to build stocks of winter heating fuels."The industry dodged a bullet in that the storm was really a couple of hundred miles east of refinery row (north of New Orleans) up the Mississippi River," said Jeff Dietert, refining industry analyst at Simmons &amp; Co. He said precautionary closures eliminated about 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and other products from the daily total.One of the nation's most important pipelines, the Capline carrying imported crude from New Orleans to Patoka, Ill., for Midwest refiners, was undamaged, said Shell, operator of the line.Still, Dietert predicted higher futures prices for oil and gasoline - and ultimately for consumers - after the government reports data on fuel stockpiles next week. That report will show how much oil companies and their customers have drawn from crude and gasoline inventories to make up for deliveries delayed by Ivan and Jeanne.Colm McDermott, analyst at energy research firm John S. Herold, said consumers might escape without much pain. If the impact of the refinery closures and delivery delays is short-lived, wholesalers, retailers and others in the supply chain might eat price increases rather than pass them on.Reuters reported that Ivan forced the shutdown of eight refineries, or 13% of U.S. capacity. Half of those were restarting Thursday.Offshore, Shell and other producers were flying work crews back out to some evacuated oil and gas platforms and doing aerial damage assessment of others.Shell said its refining and chemical plants in Louisiana had restarted or were never shut down. A Mobile, Ala., chemical plant remained closed, it said.