MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hurricane Delta is on track to reach the US Gulf Coast (USGC) between High Island, Texas, northeast of Houston, and Grand Isle, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, Friday, according to Chemweek with reference to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Located north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday afternoon, the storm is forecast to strengthen as it heads north toward the heart of the US petrochemical industry.
At 2 p.m. ET, Delta was passing over the northern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with maximum winds near 100 mph, making it a category 2 hurricane. The storm is moving northwest at 17 mph, according to the NHC.
"Delta is expected to grow in size as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast, where there is an increasing likelihood of hurricane-force winds beginning Friday, particularly for portions of the Louisiana coast," the NHC said in its latest advisory.
According to meteorologists at the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang, Delta could be a Category 2 or 3 hurricane when it slams onshore US soil, and it may have a serious impact on some of the beleaguered parts of southwest Louisiana that were hit hard by Hurricane Laura, a category 4 storm, in late August.
On Tuesday, Delta was briefly a Category 4 hurricane before it grazed the coastline of northern Yucatan Peninsula.
According to the US Energy Information Administration's latest Energy Disruptions map, Delta could make landfall along the Texas-Louisiana coastline between Port Arthur, Texas; and Morgan City, Louisiana, in an area where about half a dozen US refineries are located, including Valero's 415,000-b/d Port Arthur refinery; ExxonMobil's 539,000-b/d refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Phillips 66's 269,140-b/d Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana; and CITGO's 440,000-b/d Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery.
On Wednesday, Phillips 66 said a complete restart of its 440,000-b/d Lake Charles refinery has been temporarily delayed until the storm passes. Reliable electricity has only recently been restored to the facility following Hurricane Laura. Also, the Alliance refinery will stay down as previously announced for planned maintenance.
BP said in its latest storm update Wednesday it has begun evacuating personnel from its platforms and assets and is beginning to shut-in production.
In addition, the four Mobile offshore drilling units contracted to BP are in the process of securing their wells.
Shell said in a storm update that it is closely monitoring Delta as it approaches the company's production facilities in Covent, Geismar, and Norco in Louisiana.
A Valero spokeswoman said the company is monitoring Delta as it assesses its Gulf Coast refining operations.
Delta is set to become the tenth tropical storm or hurricane to make landfall in the mainland US this year, breaking the record set in 1916. It would also be the fifth hurricane out of those US landfalls, according to Weather.com.
As MRC reported earlier, strengthening hurricane Delta forced the closure of 29.2% of offshore crude oil production in the US-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico by midday Tuesday, regulator US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.
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