In late 2021, an article based on data from the first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) released in August 2021 predicted New Orleans—the original hub of US refining and petrochemical operations—could find itself nearly underwater by 2030 due to a mix of rising sea levels and flooding resulting from extreme weather events.
In part, it’s wholly unbelievable such a thing could really happen. But the 2021 arrival and aftermath of Hurricane Ida—the eye of which made landfall on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm along the southeastern coast of Louisiana—delivered a dire warning that what once we thought improbable may now be very possible.
Changing tides
There’s something about the city of New Orleans for those of us fortunate enough to hail from there—whether by birth or lineage—that tethers you to it as if by some invisible subterranean root shooting through the land and up into you, no matter where in the world you may be. Like the city itself, it’s a mysterious thing, this binding, the nature of which can turn from enchantment to menace in less than the second it takes to blink one’s eyes.
Descended from a long line of women that—had they entered through the wrong port in Colonial America likely would have been burned at the stakes for their unique abilities to tell of pasts and futures—this editor can say only that complacency may be the only monster truly capable of killing you.
It’s clear the world is changing, and if we learned anything in 2020-21, we learned the inconceivable is hardly that. Whether an ongoing global pandemic or the barrage of hurricanes striking the USGC, expecting the unexpected is quickly becoming the norm, and as such, the oil and gas industry continues its transformation to weather the shifting patterns.
Traditional crude oil refineries are undergoing conversions into renewable fuel production sites. Major petroleum operators are transitioning portfolios from hydrocarbon-based to clean-energy based sources. And in Louisiana specifically, Phillips 66 announced in late 2021 that—because of exorbitant costs associated with work required to repair damages caused by Hurricane Ida—the operator instead will permanently cease oil refining at its 255,000-b/d Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, about 25 miles southeast of New Orleans, and transform it into a midstream terminal (OGJ Online, Nov. 9, 2021).
As the industry’s authority, OGJ is continuing to evolve its coverage to be inclusive of these changes.
Lagniappe
Raised and reared in South Texas and southern Louisiana, this editor grew up entranced by the word lagniappe, which in layperson’s terms, essentially translates to “a gift of a little something extra.”
You’ll notice beginning in the current issue that OGJ includes a new section called Insight. While we’ll continue providing the tried-and-true technology articles and special reports for which you, our readers, have always turned to us, the Insight section will allow us to also deliver you more inclusive and expanded content coverage not falling directly under the historical scope of OGJ special reports and technology-related stories.
While the new section will include non-technology developments in the conventional realms of exploration and development, drilling and production, refining, petrochemicals, gas processing, pipelines, and LNG, the section will also house increased coverage of the industry’s rapidly expanding energy transition initiatives.
Amid the ongoing transformations of our industry, Insight is our gift to you in the New Year. From our OGJ family to yours, with gratitude and appreciation, best wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2022.
