Hurricane Laura has forced ports along the US Gulf Coast to cease operations and hence, severely disrupted exports of crude oil, petroleum products, and LNG from the country. The Port of Houston, which handled 600,000 bpd of US crude exports, began resuming service for commercial shipping late Thursday after being closed since Wednesday.
The Houston Ship Channel managed to avoid any significant storm impacts and reopened on Thursday. Port agent JJ Plunkett said some 50 vessels, mostly tankers, were waiting to re-enter the channel. The ports of Texas City, Galveston, Houston, and Freeport kept operations on Thursday but applied some restrictions.
The US Coast Guard said Ports of Lake Charles, Beaumont, and Port Arthur were closed as of Thursday. The shut-ins of the three ports are expected to affect nearly 1 million bpd and 830,000 bpd of US seaborne crude and refined product export capacity, respectively. An official from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) said the port’s oil-shipping facility remained closed and might reopen as early as Friday if it sustained no severe damages.
Cargo loadings from US LNG export terminals are also expected to be delayed due to Laura. Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG and Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export terminals in Louisiana remained shut as of August 27. These facilities can withstand winds from Category 5 hurricanes. However, flash floods and high tidal waves can threaten the resumption of port activities.
An industry survey estimated that US LNG exports were on course to drop to 2.1 Bcfd on Thursday, the lowest since February last year. Gas flows to the Sabine Pass LNG plant was halted for the first time since its startup in 2016. Tanker tracking data showed that empty vessels designated for the terminals will likely still be in the Caribbean Sea by this weekend.
