Electricity was restored to parts of greater New Orleans, Louisiana, last night but refineries and petrochemical assets in the state may still be weeks away from regaining full strength.
Refiners in Louisiana began to confirm damage in the area yesterday amid the power outages but declined to offer expected restart times, after more than 2mn b/d of production came off line in the storm.
Chevron told Argus today that its 356,000 Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery continues to operate and supply products to customers.
US bank Tudor Pickering Holt said it expects product crack spreads to remain elevated in the near term with Louisiana refining capacity taking several weeks to ramp back up to normal levels.
Local utility Entergy said its online map of power outages in Louisiana showing fewer than 800,000 people without power today could not be trusted because of inaccuracies. Independent outage tracker PowerOutage.US showed nearly 1mn still in the dark in Louisiana alone this morning.
Shipping around New Orleans, a key access point for the fertilizer trade and the Mississippi river, continues to be challenged. The US Coast Guard yesterday established a safety zone just upriver from the city, with all vessels banned from entering the area without express permission until 30 September or until salvage operations are complete.
Shell said oil and gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico remain off line, except for Perdido in the southwestern Gulf and the Turritella floating production storage and offloading vessel 200 miles (322km) southwest of New Orleans. Crew changes on the company's Gulf of Mexico assets will be halted for the time being after its primary crew-change heliport in Houma, Louisiana, sustained significant damage in the storm.
Although the storm is no longer a direct threat to offshore oil and gas activities, 93.7pc of Gulf crude output was still shut-in yesterday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). Another update from BSEE is expected later today, which will likely show more production coming online and more workers returning to offshore facilities.
The administration of President Joe Biden yesterday promised to offer the "full weight" of the federal government as it declared a major disaster in Louisiana. Federal agencies are sharing aerial and satellite imagery to support damage assessments, as well as helping with debris removal and traffic control in the state.
Ida, now classified as a tropical depression, is likely to cause significant and life-threatening flash flooding from the Mid-Atlantic into southern New England today, the midpoint of the Atlantic hurricane season ending 30 November.
| US Gulf coast refinery status, post-Hurricane Ida | ||
| Name | Capacity (b/d) | Status as of 1 September |
| Marathon Garyville | 565,000 | Shut, unspecified damage |
| ExxonMobil Baton Rouge | 500,000 | Restarting |
| Citgo Lake Charles | 425,000 | Normal |
| Phillips 66 Alliance | 250,000 | Shut, unspecified damage |
| Shell Norco | 250,000 | Shut, unspecified damage |
| Valero St Charles | 215,000 | Shut |
| PBF Chalmette | 190,000 | Shut |
| Valero Meraux | 135,000 | Shut |
| Delek Krotz Springs | 80,000 | Unknown |
| Calcasieu Refining | 136,000 | Normal |
| Chevron Pascagoula | 356,000 | Normal |
| Phillips 66 Lake Charles | 264,000 | Normal |
| Source: Companies | ||
