U.S. Gulf Coast oil refiners recovering faster than producers

[September 11, 2021]  By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Most of the nine Louisiana
refineries shut by Hurricane Ida have restarted or were
restarting on Friday, nearly two weeks after the powerful storm
came ashore, a Reuters survey showed.

Refiners are coming back faster than oil production, a
reverse of past storm recoveries. Just three of the nine
refineries were completely idled, accounting for about 7% of
Gulf Coast refining, compared to shut-ins of two-thirds of oil
output.

Valero Energy Corp’s Meraux refinery on the
Mississippi River east of New Orleans was restarting units on
Friday, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Valero
also is preparing its St. Charles refinery to restart, the
company has said.

Royal Dutch Shell’s Norco refinery was receiving
limited power on Friday, and is planning to begin restarting in
one to two weeks, according to company reports and people close
to the company.
 

PBF Energy’s Chalmette refinery has restarted some
units but has not resumed production, sources told Reuters.

The state's two largest refineries - Marathon Petroleum’s
578,000 barrel per day (bpd) Garyville and Exxon Mobil
Corp's 520,000 bpd Baton Rouge plant - have returned to
operation, the companies said on Friday.

Exxon is operating its two gasoline-producing units
at maximum capacity, said people familiar with plant operations.
It has received 3 million barrels of crude from the U.S.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The hardest hit refinery, Phillips 66’s 255,600 bpd
Alliance plant in Belle Chasse, faces months of repairs that
could rival those needed after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, sources
familiar with the situation said.

It was continuing to pump water out of the refinery on
Friday, the sources said. Phillips 66 had repaired a broken
flood wall that allowed storm waters to enter the plant, a
spokesperson said.

Two other refineries: Placid Refining's 75,000-bpd Port
Allen refinery and Delek US Holdings' 80,000-bpd plant in
Krotz Springs restarted early this week. Placid has received
300,000 barrels of crude oil from the SPR.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba
Editing by Chris Reese)

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