Insurance losses from Hurricane Francine to be highly manageable, report says

(Reuters) - Losses from Hurricane Francine are expected to remain in the low single-digit billions for the insurance industry and should be highly manageable, according to a preliminary estimate from Gallagher Re.

Hurricane Francine threatened New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast as far east as the Alabama and Florida border on Wednesday, shutting down a quarter of oil and gas production in the Gulf, while parishes across Louisiana issued evacuation orders.

Wind and water-related losses could cost insurers $1 billion, a figure that "could reach the low single-digit billions should the track shift further east and closer to the more densely populated New Orleans metro region," the reinsurance broker said in a report.

Early on Wednesday morning, the U.S. National Weather Service warned that conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day as the hurricane threatened some coastal areas with a 9-foot storm surge.

The preliminary estimates for losses can change materially later once the hurricane has made landfall. Still, the findings could reassure those worried about the hit to the industry which has been liable for billions in claims due to weather-related disasters over the past few years.

(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)