MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron temporarily shut in production June 18 from two offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and evacuated some staff, ahead of a weather system that was expected to strengthen into a tropical storm and make landfall in southeast Louisiana, reported S&P Global.
Other producers in the Gulf, including BP, Shell and W&T Offshore, said they were monitoring the track of Potential Tropical Cyclone Three, but as of early afternoon had not yet evacuated any staff from platforms or shut in any offshore output. Later in the day, Shell said no crew-change flights were scheduled out of Houma and marine operations would remain limited in areas affected by the storm and elevated seas.
With the storm tracking well east of gas liquefaction facilities in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, producers there did not expect any impacts to export operations. Officials at Cheniere Energy, the biggest US LNG exporter with facilities at Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas, and Freeport LNG, which operates a liquefaction facility south of Houston, said they would continue to monitor the storm.
In Chevron's case, it wasn't taking any chances.
In preparation for the tropical weather, the company transported all non-essential personnel from the Big Foot, Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti platforms. All personnel from its Genesis facility were also moved onshore, spokesman Tyler Kruzich said in an email responding to questions.
While production was temporarily shut-in at the Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti platforms, output at other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico assets remained at normal levels, Kruzich said. Production at Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti was expected to return to full levels over the weekend, Kruzich said.
Louisiana refiners in the path of the storm were also monitoring the situation.
"Phillips 66 is closely monitoring Potential Tropical Cyclone Three in the Gulf of Mexico," said spokesperson Allison Stowe. "Based on the storm's projected path, our Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, has activated its storm preparedness plan and remains focused on maintaining safe and reliable operations. There's no impact to operations at this time."
As MRC wrote previously, Chevron Corp has restarted the 112,229 barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas, refinery night after completing a multi-unit overhaul that was extended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire refinery was shut from mid-April, 2020, until mid-July, 2020 with the last units returning to production on Tuesday, 14 July. The overhaul was originally to finish in mid-June, but was extended to mid-July.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
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