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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby joewp » Mon 01 Sep 2008, 20:00:24

It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. To the east of the city, state officials were unable to reach anyone at Port Fourchon, a vital energy industry hub where huge amounts of oil and gas are piped inland to refineries.


Associated Press

I hope they can reach the people at Fourchon and get them out soon.
Last edited by joewp on Mon 01 Sep 2008, 20:20:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby Tanada » Mon 01 Sep 2008, 20:10:42

joewp wrote:
It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. To the east of the city, state officials were unable to reach anyone at Port Fourchon, a vital energy industry hub where huge amounts of oil and gas are piped inland to refineries.


[url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBHjZl2_Eq6vRuqB3ltJYWohaSGwD92U7R382]Associated Press


I hope they can reach the people at Fourchon and get them out soon.


That actually sounds ominous, they have to have battery and/or reserve powered radios at the port, marine radio's if nothing else with a long reach. They shouldn't be totally out of contact like that.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby DantesPeak » Mon 01 Sep 2008, 20:53:08

Price of crude dips after Gustav proves weaker than expected
by Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune
Monday September 01, 2008, 6:19 PM

It also is unclear what type of damage, if any, was sustained at Port Fourchon, a hub for the offshore petroleum industry and for oil imports. Gustav slammed into Port Fourchon before coming ashore in Cocodrie.

"Hopefully we don't have any major infrastructure problems that we can't access the port," Port Fourchon director Ted Falgout said. "If that shut-in lasts three or five days then you'll see some major energy issues in the country."


The Times-Picayune
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby newman1979 » Mon 01 Sep 2008, 21:35:40

Here is a listing of the current infrastructure outage due to Gustav, from Reuters:

Sept 1 (Reuters) - Hurricane Gustav, the first big threat to U.S. Gulf of Mexico energy and port infrastructure since Katrina and Rita in 2005, made landfall west of New OrleansMonday morning. [nN01292385]
The following outlines the impact on the energy sector:
*****HIGHLIGHTS*****
*96.3 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output shut
*82.3 percent of Gulf of Mexico natgas output shut
*27 percent of U.S. refining affected, 11 percent shut, 16 percent at reduced rates.
*433,600 Entergy customers lose power
*No damage assessments yet
*US waives gasoline standards in parts of Texas and Louisiana, ready to release emergency crude
*****CRUDE OIL, NATURAL GAS*****
*96.3 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico's 1.3 million barrels per day crude output shut as of Sunday, according to U.S. government.
*82.3 percent of the Gulf's 7.4 billion cubic feet per day natural gas output shut as of Sunday.
*****REFINING*****
*Ten refineries with capacity of 1.9 million bpd shut
*Eight refineries with capacity of 2.8 million bpd at reduced rates

REFINERIES NOT PRODUCING FUEL:
*ExxonMobil 193,000 bpd Chalmette, Louisiana.
*Murphy 120,000 bpd Meraux, Louisiana
*ConocoPhillips 280,000 bpd Lake Charles and 195,000 bpd Alliance, Louisiana, refineries
*Motiva 236,000 bpd Norco, Louisiana; 235,000 bpd Convent, Louisiana refinery on standby.
*Marathon 250,000 bpd Garyville, Louisiana.
*Calcasieu shut its 80,000 bpd Lake Charles, Louisiana
*Alon 80,000 bpd Krotz Springs, Louisiana
*Valero 250,000 bpd St. Charles, Louisiana

REFINERIES AT REDUCED RATES:
*ExxonMobil 503,000 bpd Baton Rouge, Louisiana; 567,000 bpd Baytown, Texas; 349,000 bpd Beaumont, Texas
*Citgo 430,000 bpd Lake Charles, Louisiana
*Valero 325,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas; 130,000 bpd Houston, Texas, 245,000 bpd Texas City, Texas
*Motiva 285,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas
*****ELECTRIC POWER*****
*Entergy says 433,600 of 1.9 million customers without power, 101,500 in evacuated areas, 332,600 in southeast and southwest Louisiana.
*Entergy's Waterford 3 nuclear plant shut Sunday night; River Bend nuclear plant powered down to 75 percent due to lower electricity demand.
*****SHIPPING AND PORTS*****
*Louisiana Offshore Oil Port stopped unloading ships Saturday and shut flows from storage Sunday
*Houston Ship Channel closed to inbound traffic at midnight Sunday (0500 Monday GMT), all outbounders already gone
*Mississippi River traffic at New Orleans halted inbound at noon (1700 GMT) Saturday, outbound as of 6 p.m. CDT (2300 GMT).
*Traffic at Lake Charles, Louisiana, halted Sunday
*Traffic at Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, halted Sunday
*Gulf Intracoastal Waterway closed Mississippi to Florida
*****PIPELINES*****
*Explorer Pipeline says entire 700,000 bpd products pipeline, Gulf Coast to Chicago, available Monday night
*El Paso's said its Tennessee and Southern Natural gas pipelines offshore throughput cuts total 2.5 Bcfd.
*TEPPCO's 340,000 bpd products line from Texas to Northeast cuts run rates, Beaumont distillate line down.
*Henry Hub natural gas trading hub shut Sunday.
*Enbridge (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (EEP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stopped taking natural gas production Saturday on systems with 6.7 Bcfd capacity.
(Reporting by Bruce Nichols, Erwin Seba, Chris Kelly and Marcy Nicholson; Editing by Richard Valdmanis)

Maybe someone could make an estimate of these numbers. LOL
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby DantesPeak » Mon 01 Sep 2008, 21:40:57

Add one more refinery and two pipelines.

See the refinery outages thread.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby UncoveringTruths » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 11:30:31

Ali Velshi from CNN is reporting live that some homes were destroyed roads are completely sanded over and the Sheriff had to walk a mile to get to Grand Isle Louisiana. This is near the Loop and down the road from Port Fourchon. He speculated that Port Fourchon may have worse damage than his location. Said it would take a couple of days to access the totality of the damage.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby DantesPeak » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 11:52:23

There is not much news from the LOOP. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and its underwater pipeline have not been evaluated for damage yet. There are plans to make an aerial survey.

I don't the LOOP "dodged a bullet" as we are otherwise hearing elsewhere in the Gulf area.

14 refineries were closed as of last evening, but 4 Texas refineries will start up about noon.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby AirlinePilot » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 12:22:05

I'm hoping that the LOOP actually did ok. I know some in here hope for the DOOM and gloom but on this one I'm totally the other way.

Grand Isle is North of the port which was probably inside the north and eastern sections of the eye for a while and saw the largest surge. I'm hearing reports of about 13-15' depending on where you were. That area had to see some of the worst surge due to their relationship to the eye.

Hopefully we hear something today. It is typical of the press to sound the all clear prematurely. Just the fact that they have not and probably will not allow folks back yet is not a good sign. It may be quite a while before they let people back in to those southern Parrish's I think.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby IndigoMoon » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 12:37:20

I just found an AP update. LINK
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby gw » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 16:10:16

Here are two short videos of Port Fourchon during Gustav:
(posted on oildrum)

[video width=425 height=344]http://www.youtube.com/v/ovK_ddafsM0&hl=en&fs=1[/video]

[video width=425 height=344]http://www.youtube.com/v/JXQTyXKR5Bo&hl=en&fs=1[/video]
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby shortonoil » Tue 02 Sep 2008, 17:48:05

AirlinePilot said:

Hopefully we hear something today. It is typical of the press to sound the all clear prematurely. Just the fact that they have not and probably will not allow folks back yet is not a good sign. It may be quite a while before they let people back in to those southern Parrish's I think.


I doubt if you will hear anything right away unless it is good news. We know that distillate and gasoline inventories were low before the storm. Almost any significant damage could bring about shortages. The last thing needed is panic buying.

If the news is bad the media will get the sock in the mouth treatment from the oil companies and FEMA. We can assume that if we don’t hear good news, or any news its going to be bad.

Of course the media could try to salt the mine, but there is enough expertise here and on TOD to probably see through it.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby IslandCrow » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 05:58:06

When might we hear? Problem of being in Europe is that it is still night time in America...maybe I should check back later this evening (that is local time), when Dante or Pup have woken up (btw thanks for all the fantastic information you post here).

They say "No news is Good News", but which way should I take that statement?

I did a Google search for Loop + oil and the main home page of the company running the LOOP had their latest news item was from 31st August, saying they were closing the port. Basically any recent news was either from here in Peak Oil or over at The Oil Drum.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby ReverseEngineer » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 06:36:41

We are well over 24 hours and still no valid reports either from Port Fourchon or from the LOOP at least reported here. I'm not scouring the net for other reporrts, I figure somebody here once something is actually KNOWN will speak up on it.

This length of time tells me that first off the major media isn't being allowed in the area to shoot footage. Second it makes me suspect that the damage is WORSE then we might think it could be. IF it was salvageable stuff inside of say a week or two, I'm sure it would be shown as proff we are OK. I think both the LOOP and Port Fourchon are a SERIOUS mess.

None of the major players here or on TOD so far have been able to dig up any valid information, and on both Peak Oil and TOD there are folks with inside information. Its just TOOO quiet on this for me to be comfortable that information isn't being withheld.

My bet is right now that Port Fourchon is in SHAMBLES, and the LOOP will take major reconstruction on the order of a month or more. I think we will see the shortages in about 2 weeks.

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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby AirlinePilot » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 13:07:47

There have been some early positive reports by flyovers on the LOOP. I read over at TOD that they think it will be about a week to get to 50%. I'm wondering though. Still seems pretty sketchy to me with the lack of real pictures and reports.

It appears that the big story at the moment is the Electrical Grid. Entergy took a major hit and they have big problems with a lot of their high tension lines. This may be a big factor. That plus I still believe they are limiting travel so workers need to get home first and begin clean up before things get moving again.

As i said earlier the real story is down south of NO, it appears that the damage there is a lot more significant than the reporters in NO saw.

I'm watching a thread over on Eastern US wx forums where a few chasers got photos and are recounting experiences, no word on the areas we are concerned about yet.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby TheDude » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 13:14:47

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port said Wednesday it expects to restart operations in the "next couple of days." It shut Aug. 31 ahead of Gustav.


NYMEX-Crude slips on dollar, lack of storm impact

Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. said its offshore supply vessel fleet continues to operate at 100% utilization. It hasn't yet been able to assess conditions at its port facility in Port Fourchon, La., but preliminary reports indicate the area sustained minor damage.

Chevron Corp. said initial assessments indicated no serious damage to the deepwater Henry Hub complex in the Gulf of Mexico; the company partially lifted its force majeure resulting from the Aug. 30 evacuation of Vermillion Parish.

The 1.3 million b/d Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only US port capable of accommodating the largest supertankers, has not yet resumed operations that were suspended Aug. 30 However, the Houston Ship Channel has reopened.

On Sept. 2, Jacques H. Rousseau, an analyst at Soleil-Back Bay Research, said, "No major refinery problems related to Hurricane Gustav have been reported yet. However, it could take a few more days before the full extent of the damages are known."

Bloomberg News reported Citgo Petroleum Corp., owned by Petroleos de Venezuela SA, asked DOE to supply 250,000 bbl of crude from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the company's 429,500 b/d Lake Charles, La., refinery, which is among those operating at reduced runs. That is the only request for SPR crude that the DOE has received so far.


MARKET WATCH: Lack of oil, gas disruptions lowers energy prices

Baker Hughes' CEO says the damage looks to be as bad as Katrina, however. Power outages look to be almost as severe, for instance.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 14:05:36

We had just finished building a drilling location in Morgan City, many miles north of Fourchon. As of this morning our people still weren't allowed to enter the area to check for damage. One vender did say he got a report of 5' of water at Fourchon. Beyond the physical damage getting the personnel back to work may take a good bit of time and add significantly to the delay. They evac'd with their families and, given some of the small horor stories regardling increasing stress from the return delay, I suspect many are staying with their families instead of heading back to work.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby shortonoil » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 14:08:18

TheDude quoted:

"No major refinery problems related to Hurricane Gustav have been reported yet. However, it could take a few more days before the full extent of the damages are known."


Does this sound like:

"No major refinery problems related to Hurricane Gustav have been reported yet, mostly because we haven’t been able to get there to check it out”. However, it could take a few more days before the full extent of the damages are known. Don’t worry, be happy”

Entergy asked the White House for $500 million this morning to put the power lines back up. Scrubb and Co. said no! Entergy then said how about $350 million, White House again said no. They then said something like it is not in the best interest of the country to bail out private companies.

Guess they are saving it for the Wall St. banks. There should be enough methane emitted from that area to power the country!
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby gnm » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 14:14:11

shortonoil wrote:White House again said no. They then said something like it is not in the best interest of the country to bail out private companies.

Guess they are saving it for the Wall St. banks. There should be enough methane emitted from that area to power the country!


Hypocrites. After all those billions to the bankers?! Maybe Entergy should say its not in their best interest to rebuild the power infrastructure for the refiners and pipelines... :lol:

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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 14:19:39

Certainly not a measure of the total damage but it was quit a sight yesterday afternoon with a 25 miles+ (that's where I got off the interstate) of bumper tp pumper traffic caused by hundreds of electircal repair trucks heading east to La. Couldn't help but wonder what the total day rate for all the service vehicles would be by the time they went home.
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Re: Port Fourchon & the LOOP -Aftermath..what to expect

Unread postby shortonoil » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 14:35:24

ROCKMAN said:

One vender did say he got a report of 5' of water at Fourchon.


If Fourchon is still underwater you can be dam sure they haven’t begun checking for pipeline scouring. If there is not a whole lot of torn up plumbing down there I’ll eat my hat!!
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