MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hurricane Ida pummelled US Gulf Coast energy suppliers, knocking out most of the region's offshore wells, nearly half its motor fuel production and closing energy-export ports, reported Reuters.
The storm moved into Mississippi on Monday after leaving a trail of destruction in Louisiana and rampaging through US offshore oil and gas fields. Hundreds of oil production platforms were evacuated and more than 1.3 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi were without power.
Production losses - including at six Gulf Coast refineries - will lift retail gasoline prices by 5 to 10 cents a gallon, tracking firm GasBuddy said. Crude oil eased on Monday after an earlier rally to a four-week high.
Colonial Pipeline, the largest US fuel pipeline network, halted motor fuel deliveries from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina. A spokesman on Monday did not say when it expects to resume full operations. Its lines supply nearly half the gasoline used along the US East Coast and an extended May shutdown led to fuel shortages.
Some 1.74 million barrels of oil output were lost to shut-ins on Sunday, an amount greater than Mexico's daily production. US Gulf of Mexico natural gas also was cut by 94%, or 2 billion cubic feet, a government tally found.
Six refineries that process 1.92 million barrels per day of oil into gasoline and other petroleum products, either shut or curtailed some production, sources familiar with the operations and companies said. That includes two Valero Energy plants in Louisiana that combined process 335,000 barrels per day and Phillips 66's 255,000 bpd Alliance, Louisiana, refinery.
Oil companies on Monday are beginning damage surveys of offshore platforms before taking crews back and restoring any output. Royal Dutch Shell plans a flyover of its offshore properties.
We remind that Royal Dutch Shell plans to reduce its refining and chemicals portfolio by more than half, it said in July 2020 without giving a precise timeframe. The move is part of the Anglo-Dutch company's plan to shrink its oil and gas business and expand its renewables and power division to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply by 2050.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC