Oil companies on US Gulf coast survey Ida’s damage to refineries

Oil companies on US Gulf coast survey Ida’s damage to refineries

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Hurricane Ida slammed into the heart of the US energy industry, but the response in fuel markets was muted on Monday as companies began to survey the extent of the storm’s damage.

Widespread wind and flooding followed Ida’s landfall on Sunday on the Louisiana coast, with water surging as high as 9ft. The Gulf of Mexico region contains a dense web of oil wells, refineries, petrochemical facilities, pipelines and natural gas processing plants.

Energy companies only started assessing damage to their facilities as day broke on Monday. More than 1m customers across Louisiana remained without power, according to PowerOutage.US.

Offshore oil and gas producers, including Shell and BP, largely evacuated their platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the storm, shutting down 1.74m barrels a day of oil production, about 15 per cent of US output, as of Sunday afternoon. Nearly 94 per cent of the Gulf of Mexico’s natural gas output was down.

At least nine oil refineries in Louisiana had reduced or shut fuel production ahead of the storm, accounting for as much as 13 per cent of total US capacity, according to the Department of