US energy secretary Dan Brouillette on Wednesday said that Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in Louisiana in late August, damaged a US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facility at West Hackberry in the state. Brouillette added that the damaged facility would be repaired soon, adding that the site remained operational.
Data dated June 30 showed that the West Hackberry SPR site held 194.8 million barrels of crude, about 30% of total SPR inventory at the time. The three other SPR facilities; one in Louisiana and two in Texas, maintain normal operations.
Citgo's 425,000 b/d Lake Charles refinery will need 4-6 weeks of repair, the company said. Phillips 66 has to wait for days to assess its 249,000 b/d Lake Charles refinery due to nearby chemical plant fire. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said refiners would be working on for a long time to secure power supplies to start production.
Power provider Entergy said its distribution lines suffered extensive damage and it would need several weeks to restore power fully in southwest Louisiana. The company said four of nine affected transmission lines remained out of service as of Wednesday. About 92,000 customers in southwest Louisiana are reportedly still facing power outages, compared to 279,000 in late August.
