Gulf coast refiners continue storm assessments: Update

: Crude oil, Oil products
24/07/09

Adds prices for blendstocks, gasoline and diesel.

Gulf coast refiners continue to assess storm damage from Hurricane Beryl, but reports suggest the overall disruption to fuel supply is minimal.

The largest refinery in Beryl's path was Marathon Petroleum's 631,000 b/d Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Texas, which lost power Monday morning leading to flaring and unit outages.

The company today declined to comment on operations at what is one of the largest refiners in the US, but market sources say nearly half of the plant's capacity could be down due to the unit outages.

Valero's 225,000 b/d Texas City refinery next door to Marathon's Galveston Bay plant may have been affected by the same power outage. The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

ExxonMobil said today that operations were "stable" at its 565,000 b/d Baytown plant on the Houston Ship Channel — the second largest plant on the storm's path — but the company expects minimal impact on production as it continues to assess the facility for damage.

Chevron said yesterday its 112,000 b/d Pasadena refinery, also on the ship channel, continues to supply customers.

Power outages and high winds in the Houston, Texas, area caused by Hurricane Beryl led Explorer Pipeline Company to shut its 660,000 b/d southern system that transports refined products from Texas to Oklahoma. The company is waiting for power to be restored in the Houston area as of Tuesday morning.

Phillips 66 said yesterday its 265,000 b/d Sweeny refinery in Old Ocean, Texas, closer to the path of the storm, has power and continues to operate. The facility was flaring early Monday following a unit upset before being brought back to normal operating conditions.

Citgo's 165,000 b/d Corpus Christi refinery, south of where Beryl made landfall, pre-emptively curtailed rates as it prepared for the hurricane over the weekend and said today it has returned to normal operations.

Valero and Flints Hills Resources, which manage a combined 633,000 b/d of capacity in Corpus Christi next to the Citgo plant, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Fuel, blendstock price movement limited

Gasoline and diesel prices showed little reaction to the hurricane outages. A rise of just 0.05¢/USG was seen in conventional gasoline on Tuesday, while the diesel fuel market fell more than 6¢/USG.

The storm's impact on aromatics supply also appeared to be minimal given ample inventory of blendstocks — including toluene (TX) and mixed xylenes (MX) — and incoming imports. Demand for TX ahead of the storm proved lackluster, and despite disrupted operations little change in pricing has surfaced.

Argus assessed nitration-grade toluene for July delivery at 333¢/USG on 8 July, down 2¢/USG from Friday 5 July, before Beryl's arrival on the Texas Gulf coast. July 5211-grade MX was assessed at 336¢/USG on 8 July, also down 2¢/USG from 5 July.

Gasoline blendstock supply, which includes TX and MX, in the US Gulf coast region remains long, with sources indicating that more imported material is set to arrive on US shores this month and next.

US Gulf coast refiners appear to have robust fuel inventories for this time of year. The four-week average of Gulf coast gasoline inventories in the week ended 28 June was up by over 4pc from the same period in 2023 and up by 6pc from 2022, after hitting a near six-month high in the penultimate week of June.

Recovery times vary

US Gulf coast refiners have faced a number of massive storm systems in the past decade, with recovery times gradually shortening.

Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 it took Gulf coast refiners three months to return to pre-storm levels of production, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API), but only 29 days in 2017 after hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

The US Energy Information Administration will publish weekly data on 17 July including the days when Beryl struck Texas, showing any decline in throughputs caused by the storm.

By Nathan Risser and Steven McGinn

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