Phillips 66 has restarted operations at its 249,000-b/d Lake Charles refining complex in Westlake, La., as well as other area midstream installations, following preemptive shutdowns ahead of Hurricane Delta’s Oct. 9 landfall along the US Gulf Coast in southwestern Louisiana (OGJ Online, Oct. 12, 2020).
With reliable electricity supply restored to all of the company’s assets in the Lake Charles area as of Oct. 15, the Lake Charles refining complex and nearly all midstream assets have now resumed operations as planned, Phillips 66 said.
The operator previously said it was working with its local provider to reinstate necessary power supplies to enable operational restarts of all regional assets by the week ending Oct. 17 (OGJ Online, Oct. 14, 2020).
Restart of the Louisiana assets follows Phillips 66’s safe and controlled shutdown of process units at the Lake Charles complex, Gulf Coast Lubricants Plant, and Lake Charles-area terminals and pipelines on Oct. 7 in preparation for Hurricane Delta, which initial post-storm assessments indicated left only minimal damage at the sites.
Hurricane Delta also prompted Phillips 66 to temporarily delay its previously proposed early-October restart of the Lake Charles refining complex after completion of works to repair damages sustained at the site as a result Hurricane Laura’s Aug. 27 landfall in the region as a Category 4 storm (OGJ Online, Sept. 23, 2020).
Hurricane Delta made landfall in near Creole, La., on Oct. 9 as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and a minimum central pressure of 970 mb, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center.
Planned maintenance activities brought forward to mid-September from October remain under way at Phillips 66’s 255,000-b/d Alliance refinery on the Mississippi River in Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, La., about 25 miles southeast of New Orleans, following the refinery’s shutdown ahead of Hurricane Sally, which made landfall near Gulf Shores, Ala., on Sept. 16 as a Category 2 storm (OGJ Online, Sept. 16, 2020).
