On Thursday, the US Energy Department said that two out of four sites of the country’s emergency oil reserve have been closed temporarily ahead of Hurricane Laura.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)’s Big Hill site in Texas and the West Hackberry site in Louisiana were closed as the department was required to evacuate the operation teams under a planned evacuation.
At the moment, the department is sending a reentry team to the Big Hill facility to check on its condition. However, the West Hackberry site was more in the storm center and the roads to the area are not yet passable.
The two other SPR, Bryan Mound in Texas and Bayou Choctaw in Louisiana were open and can deliver oil if refiners requested. However, there have been no requests so far, as inventories are high in the region as the coronavirus pandemic hampered demand.
