U.S. Gulf Oil Industry Studying Ida’s Damage Days After Storm

(Bloomberg) -- Oil’s entire chain of providers, from explorers in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to refineries along the coast, are now three days into assessing operations after the passage of Hurricane Ida.

It could be quite some time before a full extent of the damage is known, with access to many facilities along the Louisiana coast still severely limited. Crews have been able to make aerial surveys, but roads are largely impassable due to high water and downed trees.

At least 2 million barrels a day of oil refining capacity was affected by the weather pattern, which cut power across Louisiana and left at least one facility in standing water. About 94% of oil and gas output had been shut-in as of Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. 

Here is a list of major oil and gas production sites that were shut and their capacity in barrels per day, or barrels of oil equivalent a day.

• BP Plc
  • Atlantis, 200,000 b/d
  • Mad Dog, 100,000 b/d
  • Na Kika, 130,000 b/d
  • Thunder Horse, 250,000 b/d
• Royal Dutch Shell Plc
  • Turritella (including Stones field) 50,000 boe/d (at peak), Stones field working to resume partial production
  • Mars, 60,000 boe/d
  • Olympus, 100,000 boe/d
  • Appomattox, 175,000 boe/d
  • Ursa, 150,000 boe/d
  • Auger, 130,000 boe/d
  • Enchilada/Salsa, capacity not specified
• Equinor SA
  • Titan, 2,000 boe/d (producing rate in 2Q)
• BHP Group
  • Shenzi, 100,000 b/d and 50 mmcf/d gas
• Murphy Oil Corp.
  • Shut in production, up to 4,100 boe/d
• Chevron Corp.
  • Shut all oil and natural gas platforms; volume not specified
    • Average net daily production in 2018 was 186k bbl of crude, 105 million cubic feet of natural gas and 13k bbl of NGLs: website
• Exxon Mobil Corp. evacuated personnel from its Hoover platform; minimal impact on production

Ports:

• Coast Guard set condition Zulu for New Orleans
• LOOP paused deliveries until after storm

Refineries: 

• Phillips 66’s 255k b/d Alliance began idling units Friday; plant had standing water after Ida
• PBF was reducing rates at 190k b/d Chalmette; no power since Sunday, co. said Monday
• Shell was shutting 230k b/d Norco; some buildings at the refinery and chemical plant complex were damaged, though co. didn’t specify where; no estimate for completing repairs and returning to normal operations, according to co. statement
• Marathon shut production at 578k b/d Garyville; initial assessments revealed minor damage, and company is using backup generators to make repairs and continue assessments despite a power outage in the area. Co. is working on a timeline for restart
• Valero halted 340k b/d St. Charles and 125k b/d Meraux
• ExxonMobil’s 520k b/d Baton Rouge ran at about 50% capacity before Ida; refinery halted units Sunday but didn’t sustain damage and will begin restart process once Exxon confirms that it has access to necessary feedstocks and third-party utilities to stabilize systems

Pipelines:

• Williams Cos.’s Discovery Gas Transmission declares force majeure event effective Aug. 31 because of downstream constraints due to Ida; Discovery says it will perform a damage assessment of its facilities to safely return to service; unknown how long assessment will take 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.