Texas power outages hinder Hurricane Beryl recovery, delay oil
infrastructure restarts
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[July 11, 2024]
By Arathy Somasekhar, Marianna Parraga and Curtis Williams
HOUSTON (Reuters) -About 1.5 million customers remained without power in
Texas on Wednesday, two days after Hurricane Beryl raked the state, as
progress to restore electricity was slow, hampering efforts to quickly
restart critical oil infrastructure.
The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday near the
coastal town of Matagorda, about 100 miles (160 km) from Houston,
lashing Texas with heavy winds that knocked down power lines and damaged
property.
"When you don't have power, when it's pitch black at night, when it's as
hot as 80 (degrees Fahrenheit/26.6 C) during the day, and you don't have
access to food you normally have, it's a miserable situation," Texas
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told a press conference on Wednesday in
Matagorda.
About 1.3 million of the 1.5 million houses and businesses without power
are customers of CenterPoint Energy, the state's largest provider.
CenterPoint said on Wednesday it had restored power to some 980,000
customers in the previous 24 hours, adding that it would reach 1 million
re-established customers by the end of the day.
In a letter to CenterPoint on Wednesday, congresswoman Sylvia Garcia
said the firm's inability to restore power more quickly was creating a
public health crisis. "Hospitals are now unable to send patients home
where they lack power for medical equipment or an appropriately cool
environment for their conditions."
Among Texas' most affected zones by wind damage and lack of power were
cities from Lake Jackson and Galveston on the coast to Houston,
including energy hubs Freeport and Texas City, according to officials
and CenterPoint's outages map.
Chemical manufacturer Olin declared force majeure over shipping of some
product and aromatics, saying that Beryl had caused damage to its
Freeport facilities, impacting production and access to power, raw
materials, and feedstocks.
"The duration of this disruption is uncertain," it said in a statement.
Also in that area, Freeport LNG, the second largest U.S. liquefied
natural gas terminal, was preparing to resume processing by Thursday,
two sources close to the matter said, as power was being restored. But
LNG exports from the terminal are not expected to restart until the
port, which is operating under restrictions, fully reopens for vessel
traffic.
A spokesperson for Freeport LNG told Reuters the company "intends to
resume liquefaction when post-storm assessments are complete and it is
safe to do so."
PORTS, PLATFORMS REOPENING
Refineries, offshore production sites and ports saw limited damage and
were largely returning to normal operations.
Two refineries in Texas City, Texas, one operated by Marathon Petroleum
and the other by Valero Energy Corp, were in operation on Wednesday
morning, according to a Reuters eyewitness.
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A drone view shows rain clouds approaching a damaged residence in
the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Surfside Beach, Texas, U.S.,
July 9, 2024. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
The Port of Freeport said on Wednesday the navigation channel had
reopened to vessels with drafts up to 36 feet (10 meters). The port,
which moved its first ship, added that survey would determine when
the channel would be cleared for operations without restrictions.
"All Port Freeport entrance gates have resumed normal operating
hours. Utility crews are on-site making repairs to downed power
lines," it said.
The Port of Houston said its eight public terminals had resumed
operations on Tuesday for vessel operations, and on Wednesday
returned to normal start times for gate operations.
Houston Pilots, which provides services to ships entering or
departing the port, moved 14 ships inbound on Tuesday and was
expecting 25 inbound and five outbound vessels on Wednesday.
At the Port of Galveston, cruise ships began to sail while cargo
operations were expected to resume on Wednesday. The port, which
maintains draft restrictions for vessels, experienced relatively
minor damage and some power outages, said Rodger Rees, Galveston
Wharves port director.
"Power remains out for areas of the port and the city. Port staff is
working closely with the city to get power fully restored," the
ports said on a social media update.
U.S. oil producer Chevron said on Wednesday that output from its
operated Gulf of Mexico assets remained at normal levels.
DAMAGES MOUNTING
Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re estimated that U.S. economic losses
from Beryl would be at least $1 billion as damage assessments
continue. Weather forecasting firm AccuWeather issued a preliminary
estimate of $28 billion to $32 billion in U.S. damage and economic
loss.
State officials promised cooling stations, hospital beds and a plan
to remove debris. President Joe Biden on Tuesday approved a major
disaster declaration for Beryl.
With local stores running out of power generators for sale, many
Texans resorted to their trucks to power appliances and small
equipment at home.
A Ford Motor spokesman said the automaker saw a 1,300% increase from
customers in the Houston region generating at least 1 kilowatt of
power with their built-in F-150 pickup truck mobile generators.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar, Marianna Parraga, Curtis Williams,
Sabrina Valle and Erwin Seba in Houston; Additional reporting by Ben
Klayman in Detroit, Liz Hampton in Denver and Vallari Srivastava in
Bangalore; Editing by Rod Nickel, Bill Berkrot, Josie Kao and Sandra
Maler)
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