MOSCOW (MRC) -- The engine of the US offshore energy industry struggled to recover from Hurricane Ida as a lack of crews, power and fuel left companies unable to fully assess the damage to offshore facilities, reported Reuters.
Ports were reopening and some pipelines restarted as companies completed post-storm evaluations. However, larger hurdles remained for offshore producers and some refiners that struggled to get enough power to begin restarts.
Five days after the hurricane churned through offshore oil and gas fields, the extent of the damage to key facilities was still unknown. Crews have not returned to three-quarters of the evacuated platforms and more than 90% of production remained offline, government data showed.
The White House sought to ease regional fuel shortages, authorizing the release of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil to Exxon Mobil to produce gasoline. Four large refineries in the state remain shut.
Fuel and power shortages have hampered recovery. About 860,000 homes and businesses in the state lacked power. More than a third of gasoline stations in Louisiana were without fuel, according to tracking firm GasBuddy.
The shortages included aviation fuel for helicopters that conduct post-hurricane aerial evaluations and ferry workers to and from platforms. Ida's winds crushed fuel depots and helicopter pads used by transport firms.
Royal Dutch Shell, the largest Gulf of Mexico producer, has resumed just 20% of its usual production, the company said. An offshore facility that connects three large oil production basins was damaged by the storm, though the extent of it was not immediately clear, it said.
Pipeline operator Enbridge said it continues to evaluate its Gulf of Mexico facilities and offshore production remained shut. Damages to offshore oil facilities could cost insurers about USD1 billion, estimated CoreLogic.
Overall Gulf of Mexico output declined by 240,000 barrels, according to government data, an unusual reversal. Production restarts are taking longer than after past storms, analysts said, in part because of the extent of infrastructure damage.
As MRC informed before, Shell found evidence of building damage at its 230,611-bpd Norco, Louisiana refinery. But sources familiar with plant operations did not know the extent of the damage or time needed to make the repairs. Shell is awaiting the restoration of external electrical power to the Norco refining and chemical plant complex.
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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC