MOSCOW (MRC) -- Devon Energy shut wells and Kinder Morgan suspended operations at a fuel terminal southeast of Houston after storms flooded parts of Texas and cut power to tens of thousands. Refineries and pipelines continued to run, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Oklahoma City-based driller Devon stopped pumping from wells in areas affected by flooding in Texas, said company spokesman John Porretto. Kinder Morgan suspended service at a complex in Pasadena, Texas, where trucks load gasoline and diesel after lightning affected the area’s electrical systems. Pipeline operators and refiners including ExxonMobil and Enterprise Products Partners said they weren’t affected by the weather.
Storms have slammed Texas, home to the most oil-refining capacity in the US, with more than 10 inches of rain, flooding homes and freeways and halting bus and rail service. More than one-third of the nation’s oil production is in Texas.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil sank $1.69, or 2.8%, on Tuesday to settle at USD58.03/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Operations at Exxon’s 560,500 bpd Baytown complex, Texas’s second-largest refinery by capacity, are normal, said Deedra Moe, a spokeswoman for the plant. Phillips 66, which owns two refineries in Texas, hasn’t been affected by the storms, said company spokesman Dennis Nuss.
Marathon Petroleum declined to comment on the status of its two oil refineries in Texas, which have a combined capacity of 535,000 bpd. LyondellBasell Industries, which runs a 263,776 bpd plant in Houston, also declined to comment.
Enterprise Products Partners, a Houston-based company that operates storage terminals and pipelines, hasn’t had significant trouble because of to the storms, said company spokesman Rick Rainey.
The truck racks at Kinder Morgan’s Jefferson Street terminal in Pasadena that halted operations were scheduled to resume service later on Tuesday, company spokesman Richard Wheatley said.
As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil resumed normal processing rates at its refinery in Baytown, Texas in early March, after cutting them because the closing was delaying crude shipments.
MRC