The following information is cribbed (with permission) from a FACTBOX produced by S&P Global Platts. Petroleum companies in the Gulf, especially around Houston, are are responding to likely shutdowns or possible damage due to the strengthening Hurricane, which is expected to have its largest impacts over the next 36 hours or so (longer for some flooding).<\/p>\n
Before giving you these details, I also saw this: A map being circulated around energy industry folks showing the amount of land in Houston that has been made impermeable (by construction of things and surfaces) since the last big Hurricane. It is a HUGE amount. It seems that over time, Houston has made the prospect of bad flooding given a certain amount of rain worse rather than better (individual cities can make that choice, they may have failed to choose widely).<\/p>\n
OK, her is a selection of facts form the FACTBOX:<\/p>\n
* In the afternoon, the NYMEX RBOB crack spread against WTI was $1.91
\nhigher at $17.67\/b, boosted by supply concerns. NYMEX September RBOB settled
\nup 4.52 cents at $1.6641\/gal. Physical gasoline prices were higher as well.
\nS&P Global Platts assessed Gulf Coast conventional gasoline at NYMEX October
\nRBOB plus 12 cents\/gal, a 5.89-cent\/gal climb and its highest assessment since
\nAugust 13, 2015.<\/p>\n* Platts assessed benchmark Gulf Coast jet fuel on the first day of
\ntrading for Colonial Pipeline’s prompt 50th cycle at the NYMEX October ULSD
\nfutures contract minus 3 cents\/gal, after it traded at that level in the
\nMarket on Close assessment process. That was up 4 cents from Wednesday, and
\nits highest level since October 1, 2014.<\/p>\n* In natural gas, TGP Zone 0 was the largest mover in the region, with
\nprices jumping almost 6 cents to $2.816\/MMBtu. There was a force majeure
\nissued on Tennessee Gas at 11:30 am CDT time that will impact flows involving
\nStation 1 and Station 9 near Agua Dulce, Texas. NGPL was evacuating personnel
\nfrom Compressor Station 300, and TGP had evacuations at Stations 1 and 9 near
\nAgua Dulce.<\/p>\n* In shipping, Aframax freight rates rallied with charterers seen working
\nnarrow fixing windows. The east coast Mexico-USGC route climbed 20 Worldscale
\npoints from Wednesday after Chevron took the Bonita for an east coast
\nMexico-US Gulf Coast run at w112.5 loading a 70,000 mt cargo with August 27-29
\ndates. An expectation of potential delays after the hurricane fizzles out and
\nshipowners heard to be looking for a “hurricane premium” on bookings kept the
\nmarket elevated.\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\nDo you know what all that means? Good, let me know in the comments below. I suppose that where pries may be going up, there will be less of an up-going in the event of disaster.<\/p>\n
Oil refineries are making some adjustments right now:<\/p>\n
* Flint Hills Resources is shutting both the East and West plants of its
\n296,470 b\/d Corpus Christi, Texas, refining complex ahead of Hurricane Harvey,
\nthe company said.<\/p>\n* Other area refiners, such as Valero, Marathon, Phillips 66 and Shell,
\nsaid they were monitoring the storm. “We will continue to monitor the storm
\nand make decisions about refinery operations, especially for our Corpus
\nChristi and Three Rivers locations where the storm is currently projected to
\nmake landfall,” Valero spokeswoman Lillian Riojas said.<\/p>\n* The Texas Gulf Coast is home to 4.944 million b\/d of refining capacity,
\nwhile the Louisiana Gulf Coast is home to 3.696 million b\/d of capacity,
\naccording to the US Energy Information Administration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI suppose that is the part where our entire economy is affected by a hurricane in Houston. Since the hurricane is steering south of Houston this may not be as big a deal, with the direct effects of flooding being the real problem. I assume these plants are all designed to handle pretty much any amount of flooding because they were built in a Hurricane zone by non-idiots. Right?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the actual production of Texas T is being affected already:<\/p>\n
\n* Some 9.56%, or 167,231 b\/d, of US Gulf of Mexico oil output was shut-in
\ndue to Hurricane Harvey as of 11:30 am CDT (1630 GMT) Thursday, the US Bureau
\nof Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. In addition, some 14.66%, or 472
\nMMcf\/d, of Gulf of Mexico natural gas production was shut-in, BSEE said.
\nPersonnel have been evacuated from 39 production platforms, or 5.29%, of the
\n737 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the agency said. Personnel have
\nbeen evacuated from one of the 10 non-dynamically positioned rigs currently
\noperating in the Gulf.<\/p>\n* Shell shut operations at its Perdido facility in the Gulf of Mexico
\nlate Wednesday. Shell’s Perdido is one of the world’s deepest floating oil
\nproduction platforms, moored at 8,000 feet of water. It is a production hub
\nfor three fields in which Shell has a stake: the Great White, Tobago and
\nSilvertip fields. Production is about 100,000 b\/d.<\/p>\n* ExxonMobil has begun to curtail oil and natural gas production from the
\nGalveston 209 platform and is preparing the facility for evacuation, a company
\nspokeswoman said Thursday.<\/p>\n* Anadarko Petroleum has shut production at four fields offshore Texas.
\nThe company said late Wednesday that it had not only removed
\nall personnel but temporarily shut production at its operated Boomvang,
\nNansen, Gunnison and Lucius facilities. Boomvang and Nansen are sited in the
\nEast Breaks area of the Gulf, nearer the Texas coast than the other two
\nfields, while Gunnison is located in Garden Banks further west and Lucius is
\nin southeast Keathley Canyon, sited south of Garden Banks.<\/p>\n* ConocoPhillips has evacuated non-essential personnel from its Magnolia
\noffshore US Gulf of Mexico producing platform, the company said. Magnolia’s
\ngross production in 2016 was 4,000 boe\/d, of which 3,000 boe\/d was net to
\nConocoPhillips.<\/p>\n* Statoil, which operates two rigs in the Eagle Ford play of South
\nTexas, said it was securing its rigs and wells and evacuating rig personnel as
\nwell as suspending all non-essential activities.<\/p>\n* ConocoPhillips has suspended drilling and completion activities in the
\nEagle Ford Shale and moved non-essential equipment off the six drilling rigs
\nit is running in the South Texas play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSeaports and transport terminals are going to shut down or are starting to shut down, and this of course will affect things other than bublin’ crude.<\/p>\n
\n* NuStar Energy is preparing to shut its Corpus Christi crude oil and
\nrefined products terminals in Texas ahead of the storm, spokesman Chris Cho
\nsaid Thursday. He did not give a specific timeline for completing the
\nshut-down process, but said the company has activated its emergency response
\nplans and will continue to monitor the storm to determine its next course of
\naction. NuStar’s North Beach Terminal at Corpus Christi in southern Texas
\nincludes a 1.6 million-barrel crude facility, and 10 storage tanks with a
\ncombined capacity of 327,000 barrels for gasoline, distillates, xylene and
\ntoluene.<\/p>\n* Magellan suspended operations early Thursday at its crude terminal and
\ncondensate splitter in Corpus Christi, Texas, in response to the incoming
\nstorm, said spokesman Bruce Heine. The midstream player operates a 3.5
\nmillion-barrel crude and condensate storage storage and a 50,000-b\/d
\ncondensate splitter at the facility, Heine said in an email. However, the
\ncompany’s refined products and crude oil pipelines in the Houston Ship Channel
\narea are operating normally at this time.<\/p>\n* Port condition Yankee was set for the Texas ports of Houston, Texas
\nCity, Galveston, Freeport and Corpus Christi. Port condition Yankee is when
\nhurricane force winds are possible within 24 hours, closing inbound traffic.
\nPIRA Energy Group estimates Texas’ total crude export capacity to be 2.5
\nmillion b\/d. PIRA, which is part of S&P Global Platts, has arrived at that
\ndata using available public data.<\/p>\n* A source with a shipowner engaged in the US Gulf Coast oil lightering
\nmarket confirmed ship-to-ship operations were suspended through the end of the
\nweekend. “I can confirm that lightering, everywhere from Corpus to Southwest
\nPass, is suspended as of today until at least Sunday.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThanks very much to the staff at the SPG Global newsdesk, and editor Lisa Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following information is cribbed (with permission) from a FACTBOX produced by S&P Global Platts. Petroleum companies in the Gulf, especially around Houston, are are responding to likely shutdowns or possible damage due to the strengthening Hurricane, which is expected to have its largest impacts over the next 36 hours or so (longer for some … Continue reading Harvey’s effects on petroleum pricing and related things<\/span>