UpdateGustav forces US Gulf plant shutdowns

01 September 2008 21:14  [Source: ICIS news]

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By Brian Ford

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--A weakened Hurricane Gustav has prompted a number of chemical plant and refinery shutdowns in Louisiana, companies said on Monday.

Gustav, which slammed into the Louisiana coast on Monday morning, weakened on Monday afternoon to a category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles/hour, the National Hurricane Center said.

Gustav was just northeast of Franklin, Louisiana, about 35 miles (55km) southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, the hurricane centre said.

Additional weakening was expected as the hurricane moved inland.

Gustav’s approach prompted numerous shutdowns, chemical and refinery companies reported.

Dow Chemical said it shut down its Union Carbide plant in St Charles, Louisiana. Dow’s capacity at the site is 1m tonnes/year.

Some of Dow’s plants at its Plaquemine site were also shut down in advance of the storm, said company spokesman David Winder. Dow’s Plaquemine plant capacities include 735,000 tonnes/year of benzene, 1m tonnes/year of caustic soda, 885,000 tonnes/year of chlorine and 758,000 tonnes/year of ethylene, according to ICIS plants and projects.

Shell Chemicals shut down its Norco and Geismar plants in Louisiana in advance of the storm, the company said. Shell’s Mobile, Alabama plant continued to operate, the company said.

Shell’s Norco site has a capacity of 1.5m tonnes/year of ethylene, 1m tonnes/year of propylene, and 260,000 tonnes/year of butadiene, according to ICIS plants and projects.

Shell’s stand-alone Geismar facility has a capacity of 575,000 tonnes/year of ethylene oxide and 465,000 tonnes/year of ethylene glycols.

 “Once the storm passes through and it is safe to do so, we will begin assessing the facilities for re-start,” Shell said in a statement.

BASF shut down its plants in Geismar and in Port Arthur, Texas, a company spokesperson said.

BASF’s Geismar plants include capacities of 265,000 tonnes/year of aniline, 220,000 tonnes/year of ethylene oxide and 275,000 tonnes/year of nitrobenzene, according to ICIS plants and projects. Its Port Arthur plants include 1m tonnes/year of benzene, 935,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 860,000 tonnes/year of propylene.

Motiva shut down its 235,000 bbl/day Convent refinery in Louisiana, the company and was running its 285,000 bbl/day Port Arthur refinery at minimum rates, the company said.

“As part of our hurricane action plans, we have portable generators and base camps pre-staged in strategic outlying locations for rapid deployment if power and living quarters for workers and families are needed,” Shell and Motiva (a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Refining) said in a statement.

The storm has led to hundreds of thousands being evacuated from the coast. More than 90% of the residents of New Orleans - which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago - had left the city, according to television reports.

In total, an estimated 1.9m people are thought to have fled further inland.

However, the storm was not as ferocious as earlier feared.

Crude prices fell by more than $4/bbl to take Brent crude on ICE Futures to below $110/bbl for the first time since early May on the back of a stronger US dollar and the diminishing threat from Gustav.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) on Monday estimated that 100% of Gulf oil production had been shut in as well as about 95.4% of natural gas production.

Estimated oil production from the Gulf of Mexico is usually 1.3m bbl/day, and natural gas production is 7.4bn cubic feet/day, the MMS said.

Workers have been evacuated from a total of 626 production platforms, equivalent to 87.3 % of the 717 manned platforms in the Gulf, the MMS said. Workers from 100 rigs have also been evacuated; this is equivalent to 82.6 % of the 121 rigs currently operating in the Gulf.  

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By: Brian Ford
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