Key China oil ports shut down ahead of typhoon

Several key oil and container ports in southern China were closed on Thursday ahead of Typhoon Megi, stopping bunker fuel deliveries and forcing tankers to evacuate to calmer waters, industry sources said.
The typhoon, one of the biggest to threaten the South China coast in years, looked set to make landfall on Saturday east of Hong Kong after wreaking havoc across the northern Philippines.
Hong Kong's main oil products terminals and the ports of Shenzhen and Zhuhai were closed early Thursday, shipping sources said.
"At 6:00 a.m. this morning, they shut the five product terminals at Tsing Yi," an agent with shipping and logistics firm GAC said from Hong Kong. "Tankers are leaving and going for anchorage."
The port closures come a day after oil companies evacuated their crews and oil storage vessels along the eastern coast of the South China Sea, which produces around a quarter of China's offshore production, or some 126,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent.
Tropical Storm Risk predicted the storm would weaken and make landfall between Hong Kong and Zhangzhou, to the east of the former British colony.
Oil firms operating at Hong Kong's Tsing Yi Island, with total storage capacity of around 369,000 cubic metres or 2.5 mln barrels, include Sinopec, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell.
At Shenzhen, China's CNOOC Ltd and British-based oil giant BP have liquefied natural gas operations totalling around 3.7 mln tonnes a year.