Business | Oil & Gas
Ike forces closure of 19% of US refining capacity
Energy companies reported that 596 production platforms, or 83% of the total, have been evacuated.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 00:02 September 14, 2008
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New York: Hurricane Ike, which made landfall along the US Gulf Coast on Saturday, caused more than 19 per cent of the nations refining capacity to close and may limit fuel deliveries across the country.
At least 13 refineries in Texas were shutting down as Ike approached. Gulf Coast refineries and ports are the source of about 50 per cent of the fuel and crude used in the eastern half of the US Plants operated by ExxonMobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell Plc were affected.
Gasoline shortages may occur across the southern US up to Washington because of the closures caused by Hurricane Gustav and now Ike, Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability at the US Department of Energy, said on a conference call.
"We expect to see constrained supplies of refined products," he said. "The administration will utilise every tool at our disposal to lessen the likelihood of limited fuel supplies," including tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Ike bore down on the coast with winds increasing in strength to 110 miles (175 kilometres) an hour. Coastal areas faced a storm surge as high as 25 feet, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said on its website.
Gulf fields produce 1.3 million barrels oil a day, about a quarter of US output, and 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas, 14 per cent of the total, government data show.
Refinery issue
"This is more of a refinery issue than an oil and gas issue," said Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania. "A storm as massive as Ike has the capacity to generate massive storm surge."
Gasoline for October delivery rose 2.08 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to settle at $2.7696 a gallon Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the refineries closed. Prices rose 3.1 per cent last week.
Chevron Corp., the second-largest US energy company, urged US consumers outside the Gulf Coast region to conserve gasoline and other fuels to help avert shortages.
The company, in a statement on its website, said it's concerned about "the potential impact of Hurricane Ike and the additional pressure it could have on an already stressed petroleum-distribution system."
ExxonMobil is shutting its Baytown, Texas, refinery, the biggest in the US, with processing capacity of 590,500 barrels of oil a day, and its Beaumont plant, which can process 363,100 barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. Exxon is the world's largest oil company.
Valero, the largest US refiner, closed three Texas oil refineries with a combined capacity of 589,000 barrels a day. They are the 294,000-barrel-a-day Port Arthur refinery, a Texas City plant with a capacity of 210,000 barrels and a Houston facility that can process 85,000 barrels, spokesman Bill Day said in an e-mail.
Earlier Friday, Valero closed 64 company-operated retail stories out of almost 200 in the Houston region, Day said.
Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Arabia's state oil company, started shutting down its 300,000-barrel-a-day plant in Port Arthur, Shell said on its website. Shell is also closing its Deer Park plant, which can process 340,000 barrels per day.
Motiva's Beaumont, Pasadena and North Houston terminals are also closed and refined product supplies at those terminals remain at "safety levels," Shell said in a statement. Tank drivers earlier picked up their last loads and were making final deliveries in the region to refuel Shell-branded stations before Hurricane Ike arrives.
Corpus Christi
Citgo Petroleum Corp., owned by Venezuela's state oil company, declined to comment on the status of its refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. "We do not comment on operations," spokeswoman Shawn Trahan said in an e-mail.
Planalytics' Rouiller said Ike is similar to Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
"It took them over a year to get their feet on the ground again," he said. "The refineries were down for months. Basically, the whole infrastructure around the Houston metropolitan area was devastated."
Gasoline supplies across the southern and eastern US may be disrupted by the storm, Rouiller said.
"We could have this capability lost for a long period of time," he said.
The US Coast Guard closed the port of Houston, the nation's largest petro-leum port. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest US oil-import terminal, stopped unloading vessels.
BP is closing its 475,000-barrel-a-day Texas City, Texas, refinery. Conoco-Phillips, the second-largest US refiner, said its 260,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Sweeny, Texas, is closing. LyondellBasell Industries is shutting its 299,300-barrel-a-day Houston Refining LP plant.
Conoco's Pasadena, Texas, refined products terminal and Clifton Ridge Marine terminal near Lake Charles also closed Friday, and all company-operated pipelines in the region are shut down.
LyondellBasell Industries is shutting its 299,300-barrel-a-day Houston Refining LP plant.
Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth-largest US oil company, began to shut its Texas City refinery, which can process about 81,500 barrels of oil a day.
Total SA, Europe's third-largest oil company, is shutting down its Port Arthur refinery, which can process about 240,000 barrels a day.
Impact: 98% of oil output idled
US energy producers have idled about 98 per cent of oil production and 94 per cent of natural-gas output in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Ike swept through the region toward landfall yesterday near Houston.
Energy companies reported that 596 production platforms, or 83 per cent of the total, have been evacuated, the Minerals Management Service said yesterday in a statement on its website. About 1.27 million barrels of daily oil production is halted, along with 7 billion cubic feet of gas.
The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 26 per cent of US oil production and 14 per cent of natural-gas output. The Gulf normally produces 1.3 million barrels of oil and an estimated 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, according to the agency, part of the US Interior Department.
The report is based on responses from 83 companies as of 12:30pm New York time Friday.
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