U.S. Gulf Coast Energy Facilities Hit by Hurricane Francine

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Sept 11 (Reuters) – Energy facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast have scaled back operations and evacuated some production sites as Hurricane Francine passed through the region.

Fancine strengthened into a hurricane on Tuesday night and is moving toward the Louisiana coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

About 24% of crude production and 26% of natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico were offline due to the storm, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Tuesday. Such interruptions have the potential to affect U.S. oil supplies, leading to upward pressure on prices for domestic oil and offshore crude grades.

Offshore production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) or about 15% of the nation’s total crude output.

The port of Brownsville near the border with Mexico and other smaller terminals in Texas remained closed, while other ports, including Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Texas City and Freeport, were working with restrictions. Ports in Houma, Morgan City and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port were closed to navigation, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

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“As Francine moves north through the Gulf of Mexico, we will continue to work closely with our maritime industry partners to fully reopen impacted ports as soon as it is safe to do so,” the U.S. Coast Guard said.

OPERATOR	FACILITY	CAPACITY	DATE	DETAILS
Karoon Energy Ltd (KAR.AX)	Who Dat wells	–	Sept. 10	All Who Dat wells shut-in and evacuated platform, currently anticipate that Who Dat will be shut in for a week
BP (BP.L)	Schriever, Louisiana	–	Sept. 10	Evacuating its onshore learning and maintenance facilities
ExxonMobil (XOM.N)	Hoover offshore platform Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery	– 522,500 barrel-per-day (bpd)	Sept. 09 Sept. 10	Shut-in output and evacuated staff Cuts production to as low as 20%
Chevron (CVX.N)	Gulf of Mexico facilities Anchor platform, Tahiti oil platform	–	Sept. 09	Evacuating non-essential staff from four offshore platforms, shutting in oil and gas output at two offshore production platforms
Shell (SHEL.L)	Perdido oil platform, Whale platform, Auger and Enchailada/Salsa assets	125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) for Perdido oil platform; 100,000 boe/d for Whale platform	Sept. 10	Evacuating non-essential personnel from three offshore oil platforms, paused drilling operations at Whale platform, shut in production at three assets.
Freeport (LNG)	LNG export plant in Texas	2.1 billion cubic feet per day	Sept. 09	Begun storm preparations at its Texas plant
Cameron (LNG)	LNG export plant in Louisiana	–	Sept. 10	Amount of natural gas flowing to the export plant dropped
Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO)	South Marsh Island 76, Ship Shoal 207, 332 platforms	–	Sept. 10	Pulled employees from several offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms
Kinder Morgan (KMI.N)	Marine terminal in Myrtle Grove, Louisiana	–	Sept. 10	Shut its international marine terminal in Myrtle Grove, Louisiana
Citgo [RIC:RIC:PDVSAC.UL]	Lake Charles, Louisiana refinery	463,000 barrels of oil per day	Sept. 10	Adjusting operations as required
Woodside Energy (WDS.AX)	U.S. offshore, Louisiana coastal operations	–	Sept. 10	-Partially evacuating personnel from its Shenzi oil production facility -Fully evacuating staff from its coastal shorebase and warehouse facilities in Louisiana
Cheniere Energy (LNG.N)	Sabine Pass LNG terminal, Louisiana	4.7 billion cubic feet per day	Sept. 10	LNG production at Sabine Pass remains uninterrupted