Valero's Refineries Update

After a bit of digging I did find this wee bit of info on refinery status in TX. Valero shut down 3 refineries due to Ike. The first of three is starting the restart process that will take a few days.

I am in the Midwest, so I have no idea how many refineries were shut down and who owns them. Perhaps some other FReepers will jump in and help dig up info on what is going on. The MSM is silent on this. I also have no clue on pipeline damages or restart plans.

Majority of Ike-affected Refineries Back Up This Week - Analyst

EIA Report on Hurricane Impacts on U.S. Energy
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/special/hurricanes/gustav.html?featureclicked=1&;

1.3 million barrels per day (or about 95 percent) of the federal portion of the Gulf of Mexico’s crude oil production was shut-in

12 refineries in Texas and Louisiana that are shut down ahead of Hurricane Ike. These 12 refineries have a total capacity of 3.0 million barrels per day (about 17 percent of U.S. operable capacity), and represent about 1.1 million barrels per day of gasoline output (about 12 percent of U.S. gasoline demand in September) and over 700,000 barrels per day of distillate fuel output (about 18 percent of U.S. demand in September

6.2 billion cubic feet per day (or well over 80 percent) of the federal portion of the Gulf of Mexico’s natural gas production was shut-in

Gas peaked at 4.15/gal here in Indy over the weekend. (although some of the “surge” was due to our traditional “welcome race fans” with the Moto Grand Prix in town).
It’s started sliding now, and I expect prices near $3/gal or lower by October.

Explorer: Ready for Midwest Shipments When Supply Allows

Valero has been the first and almost only gas station(s) to open up since Ike came a calling.

From your link:

Oil companies are working to assess damage and restart operations at Texas refineries in the path of Hurricane Ike. Here's where they stood Monday evening:

Exxon Mobil: Its Baytown refinery, the largest in the U.S., has power and should be running this week. Its Beaumont refinery does not have power.

Valero: Its Houston refinery has power. Valero is working to restore power to its Texas City and Port Arthur refineries.

BP: Its Texas City refinery, the second-largest in the area, experienced no significant flooding. Employees are working with local authorities and utilities to restore power and water.

Shell: Its Deer Park refinery, the third-largest in the area, has utilities.

SOURCES: The companies

The ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery has more problems than just lack of power. Parts of the facility were under 4~5 feet of water. Assessments are still ongoing.

From ExxonMobil website

The ExxonMobil Baytown complex is developing its start-up plan, with units coming up later in the week. The complex has begun pumping gasoline from inventory to terminals for tanker truck delivery to stations.
ExxonMobil's Baytown complex is also generating its own power and providing a portion of that to the power companies to help neighborhoods and businesses get back online.
We continue to conduct site assessments at the ExxonMobil Beaumont complex. Clean-up crews are onsite. The complex does not have power at this time.

Startup is going to take a looooong time. The profiteering right now is astronomical.

The profiteering right now is astronomical.

>Exactly. And the media is complicit by their silence on the condition of the Refineries affected. This is my feeble attempt to get the information out.

Shell and BP are not posting updates on their websites.

http://www.ogj.com/display_article/339805/7/ONART/none/GenIn/1/MARKET-WATCH:-Energy-prices-continue-to-fall/

Shell Oil Co. said the 332,000 b/d Deer Park, Tex., refinery and chemical plant was in the initial phase of restarting operations, with normal operating rates expected in 5-7 days. The Deer Park refinery is jointly owned by Shell and Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos.

Motiva Enterprises LLC (a Shell-Saudi Aramco joint venture) said minor repairs were underway at its Port Arthur refinery, which was without power Sept. 16. “A priority is establishing generator power to enable movements of gasoline and diesel in inventory to the pipeline distribution system. It is too early to predict when the refinery will resume normal operations,” officials said.

Motiva’s Norco, La., refinery was operating at 80% of capacity, limited by dependent resources affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Its 235,000 b/d Convent, La., refinery was making some blending components but is not yet able to make finished gasoline and other products. Shell’s chemical plant in Mobile was operating normally. Its chemical plant in Geismar, La., was still in start up sequence and supplying limited product from existing inventory.

From the Hurricane thread:

Hurricane Ike Live Thread IV

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 2:08:53 PM · 3,453 of 3,469
AFPhys to AFPhys; NautiNurse

Start here: http://www.oe.energy.gov/news_room_and_events/events.htm

From there I eventually get to this report of today’s situation:
Situation Report for September 17, 2008, 10AM
http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/2008_SitRep_7_Ike_091708_10AM.pdf

My approximate summary (& diff from y’day) is:
- 1.9 (-.3M) Million “customers” (not people) are dark now in TX, 0.8M (-.2M)in OH, 0.3M (-.2M) LA & AR & KY
- Oil/gas starting to come back online slowly, but much is still off line. About 60% of the platforms operating in the area remain evacuated.
- It appears that about 30 of the 3,800 offshore production platforms were destroyed.
- Natural gas pipelines seem to be OK. No major infrastructure damage reported. Slowly coming back up. Need for electric. Some repairs. Not much difference there, it seems.
- A little under 90% of gas/oil wells in the GOM are not producing due to preemptive shutdowns- slowly recovering.
- Nat Gas Damage assessments under way. Flooding. Lack of power. Some may take several weeks to cleanup & repair.
- Minor damage to some off-shore facilities. Too early for detailed repair estimates, but probably not more than a few weeks.

The largest affected distribution company, CenterPoint, reports has gone from 3/4 down to about 2/3 of their customers dark. Facilities still out of service include 21 (was 90 y’day) transmission facilities, 936 (was 1348) distribution circuits. It sounds like they are doing a great job of getting this done, but of course the stuff remaining will be increasingly difficult. They haven’t changed their estimates of time it will take.

Someone specifically asked about Entergy yesterday. It is only about 1/4 the size of CenterPoint, and MUCH harder hit. Almost 85% of their customers are dark, and my glance indicates their facilities seem to be really devastated compared to CenterPoint’s. Though they are much smaller, they report having even more people working there. Still, they’re expecting about the same recovery time, and there is a list of areas and times in the report.

On balance, world wide investors are looking at Ike as a non-event for anything other than short-term production of Oil/Gas since prices are down substantially over the last couple days. Distribution situations will cause price action in local areas. In my area, gasoline is up only $0.04, so it’s been a nothing.

[IF you look at the pdf above, I caution you that the 90%+ of oil facilities out is meaningless as far as anything having to do with damage. That simply means certain facilities are not producing as of this report.]

[This is linked to the previous summary I made]

Gee, here's a thought, if I had a gasoline maker on the shore that got put under water every year I make it waterproof to begin with.

It's got to be cheaper than put it all back together every year.

But, hey what do I know, I'm only an investment banker.

got put under water every year

There is not a refinery in the US with that description. Once every couple decades maybe for a couple of them.

Even so, we should spread them (refineries) around the country. I don’t know why they haven’t utilized de-commissioned and empty military bases for those. I believe they are under federal control. Could George Bush do it with an executive order? Flick of the pen; law of the land?

Refineries require a source of crude oil and refined product pipelines for the many different materials produced from the crude oil. They need to be located near industrial facilities that use their products besides just gasoline and diesel.

There are a total of 49 out of 3900 platforms damaged by Ike.

I believe I saw this on Fox News.

Also, there was damage to about 5 pipelines (in the Gulf of Mexico).

Pipeline damage is key as even if you can produce oil/natural gas, there is no way to move it onshore without the pipelines.

Word was that older platforms in shallow water were lost (platforms built in 1970s and 1980s). These are easy to replace...

Gas down from 4.15 last weekend to 3.80s here in Indiana.
I expect it to go close to 3.00 by Nov.