Hurricane Laura to strengthen, threatens chem plants in Louisiana, Texas

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Hurricane Laura is gaining strength as it crosses the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall early on Thursday near the border of Texas and Louisiana, threatening multiple chemical plants and refineries, according to the latest updates from the National Hurricane Center.

On the Texas side is Jefferson county, which has Beaumont, Port Neches and Port Arthur. On the Louisiana side is Calcasieu parish, which has Westlake and Lake Charles.

Petrochemical plants and refiners have already made plans to shut down their facilities. Others are still operating while monitoring the storm.

HURRICANE LAURA
Hurricane Laura is about 525 miles (845 km) southeast of Lake Charles, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles/hour (120km/hour), according to the National Hurricane Center.

The wind strength makes Laura a category 1 hurricane on the Saffi-Simpson windscale. The centre expects Laura to strengthen into a major hurricane by Wednesday, with wind speeds of at least 111 miles/hour. It should make landfall by early Thursday.

The centre has issued a storm-surge warning from San Luis Pass, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. A hurricane warning is in effect from San Luis Pass to Intracoastal City, Louisiana.

Jefferson County and the city of Galveston in Texas have issued a mandatory evacuation order. Calcasieu parish issued a voluntary one.

The following map shows the path of Laura.

CHEMICAL PLANTS AND REFINERIES
Lucite took down its methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant late on Monday in accordance with the evacuation orders from Jefferson county, according to a market source.

ExxonMobil is running its Beaumont refinery at reduced rates.

Phillips 66 shut down its base oil production in Lake Charles.

Sasol shut down its Lake Charles plants ahead of the storm.

Thailand’s Indorama Ventures PCL (IVL) said it has begun preparations to shut its Port Neches site. It makes ethylene oxide (EG), ethylene glycols (EG), surfactants and propylene oxide (PO) among others.

Valero and Motiva Enterprises are shutting down their refineries in Port Arthur.

Motiva also shut down its cracker in Port Arthur.

Louisiana Pigment Company (LPC) is shutting down its titanium dioxide (TiO2) plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The company is a joint venture between Kronos Worldwide and Venator Materials.

BASF Total’s cracker in Port Arthur was already down before the storms.

As of Monday, several companies were monitoring the storms.

The region has several plants that make styrene butadiene rubber (SBR).

The table at the bottom shows some of the major plants located in the Gulf Coast.

OIL SHUT-INS
As of Monday, oil companies have evacuated 281 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, representing 43.7% of the platforms in US waters, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Platforms produce oil and natural gas offshore. Unlike drilling rigs, which typically move from location to location, platforms stay in place throughout a project’s duration.

Companies have shut-in nearly 1.52m bbl/day of oil production in the Gulf, representing 82.4% of the US total, the BSEE said. Gas shut-ins have reached 1.54bn cubic feet/day, representing 56.9% of the total.

The Gulf of Mexico hosts several offshore oil wells, accounting for 17% of the nation’s crude production, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The region is home to more than 45% of its refining capacity and 51% of its natural-gas-processing capacity.

Prices have already started rising in response to the storms.

RAILROADS
The New Orleans Flood Protection Authority closed the last floodgate on Monday, disrupting rail shipments passing through New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, said the railroad company Norfolk Southern.

Union Pacific is shutting down its intermodal terminal in Avondale, Louisiana, it said.

Another railroad company, BNSF, said it is holding all New Orleans-bound trains from moving into the area and re-routing traffic as needed.

The CSX terminal in New Orleans has been evacuated and inbound traffic is being diverted to Pensacola, Florida. CSX expects to resume normal operations in New Orleans by the end of the week.

MARCO DISSIPATES
Tropical storm Marco dissipated early on Tuesday after making landfall on Monday evening off of the southeastern coast of Louisiana.

Company	Site(s)	Product(s)	Status
ExxonMobil	“Baton Rouge, LA Baytown, TX Beaumont, TX Mont Belvieu, TX”	Olefins, aromatics, polyolefins, base oil, etc	Assessing
ExxonMobil	“Baton Rouge, LA ”	Gasoline, refined products	Operations normal
ExxonMobil	Beaumont, TX	Gasoline, refined products	Reducing rates
Indorama	Port Neches, TX	EO, EG, surfactants, PO	Shutting down
Louisiana Pigment Co	Lake Charles, LA	TiO2	Shutting down
LyondellBasell	Lake Charles, LA	PP	Ride out crew; moving inventory
LyondellBasell	“Lake Charles, LA Bayport, TX Channelview, TX Chocolate Bayou, TX,  La Porte, TX”	Olefins, derivatives	Assessing
Motiva	Port Arthur, TX	Ethylene, propylene, refinery, base oil	Down as of 24 Aug
Phillips 66	“Lake Charles, LA ”	Gasoline, refined products, base oil	Shutdown
Sasol	Lake Charles	olefins, EO/EG, phenol, LDPE, LLDPE, surfactants, n-butanol, alkylbenzene, hexene-1, linear alcohol	Shutdown
Valero	Port Arthur, TX	Gasoline, refined products	Shutdown
Lion Elastomers	“Port Neches, TX Orange, TX”	SBR	Shutdown

(releads, updates position of hurricane)

Additional reporting by Al Greenwood, Bill Bowen, Joseph Chang, Amanda Hay, Zachary Moore, Tarun Raizada, Michael Sims, Antoinette Smith and Alex Snodgrass