Post-hurricane power outages delay restart at US petrochem plants

Restarts of US petrochemical plants disrupted by Hurricane Laura are being delayed because of the hundreds of power outages caused by the hurricane. Among the companies affected, Sasol has said that while the hurricane caused minimal damage to its Lake Charles, Louisiana complex its reopening depended on power availability. Westlake Chemical also reported limited damage but again said the availability of power remained a problem. PowerOutage.US reported more than 300,000 power outages in Louisiana, where the hurricane made landfall, along with 60,000 in Texas, 6,500 in Arkansas and 1,000 in Mississippi.

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Hundreds of thousands of power outages still remain in the US as a result of Hurricane Laura, which is preventing some chemical companies from restarting their plants.

Sasol said that its complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, remains down, as high-voltage transmission line corridors going into the city suffered damage.

“Start-up of the plants will depend on the availability of electricity, industrial gases, other feedstocks and the restoration process,” Sasol said in a statement.

Early assessments of the plant have found no damage to process equipment and no damage caused by the storm surge, Sasol said. Cooling towers suffered damage from strong winds.

Sasol produces ethylene, propylene, ethylene oxide (EO), ethylene glycol (EG), phenol, linear LDPE (LLDPE), surfactants and other chemicals at the Lake Charles complex.

Westlake Chemical said late on Thursday that its facilities at Lake Charles, have incurred limited physical damage from Hurricane Laura based on initial assessment.

The restart of West Chemical’s facilities “will primarily depend upon the availability of electricity, industrial gases, and other feedstocks”, the company said in a statement. Westlake did not single out or highlight any damage to transmission lines.

The company has not specified which units were shut down as a precaution prior to the storm.

Westlake’s plants in Lake Charles include a joint venture ethane cracker, several units that produce low-density polyethylene (LDPE), LLDPE, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlor-alkalis (chlorine and caustic soda), ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).

Outages in Louisiana number more than 300,000, according to PowerOutage.US.

Texas has reported nearly 60,000. Mississippi has slightly more than 1,000 and Arkansas has nearly 6,500.

Louisiana likely suffered most of the damage from Laura, according to CoreLogic, a real-estate information company. It estimates that insurable losses to property in Louisiana and Texas will reach $8bn-12bn.

Laura made landfall early on Thursday morning in Louisiana, close to the state’s border with Texas. It was a category 4 storm with maximum sustained wind speeds of 150 miles/hour (240 km/hour).

Several petrochemical plants and refineries in Texas and Louisiana shut down operations as a precaution in the days before Laura made landfall.

Early assessments show that many of these plants experienced very minor damage, but they remain down because of disruptions to infrastructure.

Such disruptions could include power and logistics.

RAIL

On Sunday, Union Pacific said it has restored service to more line segments, with only one remaining out of service. That segment is in southern Louisiana, as shown in the following map.

Source: Union Pacific

Embargoes remain in effect for the affected areas, Union Pacific said.

Customers should expect delays of at least 72 hours in areas disrupted by Laura.

On Friday, Kansas City Southern said its NOPB and NOLA Gateway have reopened and are in service. It expected to reopen the area between Beaumont, Texas and Houston by Saturday morning.

It warned of delays until Kansas City Southern can work through backlogs and bring trains back up to normal speed.

On Thursday, CSX said it suffered minimal damage from the storm, and it is resuming operations in New Orleans. It warned that delays are possible at the New Orleans and Memphis gateways because of disruptions at connecting railroads.

OIL SHUT-INS

As of midday on Sunday, 1.29m bbl/day of US oil production had been shut-in, representing 69.76% of the total, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). For gas. 1.35bn cubic feet/day were shut in, representing 49.9% of US capacity in the Gulf. For platforms, 137 remain evacuated, or 21.31% of the total.

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Additional reporting by Tom Brown and Nurluqman Suratman

Thumbnail image shows damaged power lines in Louisiana. Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP/Shutterstock

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