Rita: Two SPR sites still flooded, but SPR operational

26 September 2005 21:08  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Two of the four storage sites in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) remain inaccessible and out of operation in the wake of Hurricane Rita, the Department of Energy (DoE) said on Monday, but SPR remains operational.

 

DoE spokesman Craig Stevens said that while the status of the Big Hill storage site in east Texas and the West Hackberry storage facility in western Louisiana remains uncertain, “the temporary loss of those two sites does not in the near term impede the department’s ability to release crude oil supplies from the SPR.”

 

DoE said today that the Big Hill site is known to have “received some minor damage” based on aerial observation, but roads into the facility remain flooded.  Stevens said officials hope to get into the Big Hill site later today.

 

No assessment of the West Hackberry site has been made, DoE said, because that facility is isolated by “impassable, flooded roads.”

 

The personnel at both Big Hill and West Hackberry were evacuated in advance of Hurricane Rita. 

 

The oil stored in SPR underground salt caverns is not vulnerable to hurricane-related wind or flooding damage, but surface infrastructure - pumping stations, pipelines, administrative and operations offices - is vulnerable.

 

DoE said that the two other storage facilities, Bryan Mound further west in Texas near the Gulf Coast and Bayou Choctaw in eastern Louisiana, are not damaged and are operational.  Stevens said that in the event DoE were to release SPR crude, Bryan Mound and Bayou Choctaw would be able to effect the release.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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