Amid the devastation of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey hammered Houston, Texas' Gulf Coast, and surrounding areas, a sign of some relief was seen with slightly lower gasoline pump prices following the Labor Day weekend, a week after the storm made landfall, showing signs that the oil and gas industry was slowly returning to full production.
Ship channels, pipelines, and refineries restarting operations along the US Gulf Coast also was a promising sign that the hub of the oil industry was getting back to business after the weather event.
Harvey flooded the heart of the oil industry with as much as 50 in. of rain forcing port operations to shut down or restrict operations from Corpus Christi, Tex., to Lake Charles, La. It required US Gulf Coast refineries to shut-in nearly 25% of the nation's refining capacity. Production onshore from the Eagle Ford shale area shut-in 500,000 b/d ahead of the hurricane, while offshore oil and natural gas production platforms shut-in nearly 25% of Gulf of Mexico production at the peak of the storm.
Ports, refineries, and pipelines
By Sept. 4, port operations throughout the region recommenced vessel flow, with some limitation, according to the US Coast Guard. USCG permitted a few barges to enter Port Arthur on Sept. 4 to the home of the largest refinery owned by Motiva Enterprises. Ships with limited access were entering and exiting the Houston Ship Channel, servicing the Port of Houston, which is the most demanding petrochemical port, connecting it to the Gulf of Mexico.
Motiva said operations at their refinery should be restored to about 40% by Sept. 11 based on the overall assessment of equipment meeting their operational standards. The Port Arthur refinery operating at 40%, can produce more fuel than many refineries operating at 100%. At full capacity, the refinery can process 603,000 b/d of oil.
Valero Energy Corp. restarted multiple units on its 335,000 b/d Port Arthur refinery on Sept. 4 and said its Corpus Christi and Texas City facilities were back to pre-Harvey production capacities. The nation's second-largest refinery, ExxonMobil Corp.'s 560,500-b/d Baytown, Tex., started back up over the holiday weekend, while Phillips 66 Sweeney refinery begin operations as well.
Pipelines that supplied the US Gulf Coast refineries are preparing to startup slowly as refineries begin to come back online and resume production. Many pipelines starting to move fuel to the rest of the nation have eased uncertainties of shortages.
On Sept. 4, Colonial Pipeline Co. resumed its main distillate line between Houston and Hebert, Tex. This pipeline, which transports more than 3 million b/d of product from Gulf Coast refineries to the US Northeast, restarted the distillate line "in a few hours." Colonial planned to restart the gasoline line on Sept. 5.
Explorer Pipeline opened both the 24-in. Oklahoma to Midwest fuel pipeline and the 28-in. line from Texas to Oklahoma over the holiday weekend.
Production levels
Eagle Ford shale region suffered during the impact of Hurricane Harvey. With about 500,000 b/d shut in from pre-storm production, operations are slowly regaining normalcy. ConocoPhillips expected to reach 80% pre-storm production levels by evening of Sept. 4 with 130,000 boe/d. Pre-storm production levels will likely resume quickly once the logistics of getting the crude back into the pipeline systems and will lessen inland crude prices.
US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement stated that production platforms in the US Gulf Coast have dropped from 30 evacuated production platforms to 14. This represents only 1.97% of the 737 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. BSEE reported that 121,484 b/d of crude oil remain shut in which equates to roughly 7% of the total oil production from the Gulf of Mexico. Natural gas production equates to 8% of the total remaining shut-in, around 259.2 MMcfd.

Laura Bell-Hammer | Statistics Editor
Laura Bell-Hammer has been the Statistics Editor for the Oil & Gas Journal since 1994. She was the Survey Editor for two years prior to her current position with OGJ. While working with OGJ, she also was a contributing editor for Oil & Gas Financial Journal. Before joining OGJ, she worked for Vintage Petroleum in Tulsa, gaining her oil and gas industry knowledge.