Ida cuts power to 1mn, offshore oil and gas: Update 2

Updates refining outages data, Colonial planned restart

Hurricane Ida left behind widespread power outages in Louisiana as officials today begin the painstaking process of assessing damage from the storm.

About 1mn households and businesses in the state were without power as of 6:30pm ET today, while about 89,000 were in the dark in Mississippi, according to the website PowerOutage.US. Local power utility Entergy said that all eight transmission lines serving the New Orleans area were knocked out of service by the hurricane, which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. It may take days to assess the extent of the damage to the grid in New Orleans and weeks before power is fully restored.

More than 2mn b/d of refining capacity in Louisiana was shut after the storm brought 150mph (240km/h) winds and nine-foot storm surge to areas near New Orleans, coastal Louisiana and stretches of the Mississippi River yesterday. The region is also home to key facilities for offshore oil and gas support work, as well as ports and docks that handle a wide range of other commodities.

Goldman Sachs said it is too early to identify the likely duration of the refinery disruptions.

"In the case of Hurricane Harvey, which was the high end of recent storm impacts (severe flooding, wind), downtime of several refiners lasted 4-6 weeks," the bank said in a note, referring to the storm that struck in 2017.

Most refinery operators with facilities in the storm's path said they shut down ahead of its arrival, but the extent of damage and potential re-start times may not be known for several days.

ExxonMobil shut down its 500,000 b/d refinery and petrochemical complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today in the face of the widespread power outages and supply chain disruptions.

Marathon Petroleum's 565,000 b/d Garyville, Louisiana, refinery is "currently assessing a timeline for safely resuming operations" after shutting down ahead of Hurricane Ida.

US offshore operators evacuated staff and shut nearly all oil production in the Gulf of Mexico before the hurricane. Around 95pc, or 1.7mn b/d, of offshore crude output and 94pc, or 2.1 Bcf/d, of natural gas production were shut in as of 12:30pm ET today, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. This is a slight improvement over the percentages reported on 29 August.

The 5,500-mile Colonial pipeline which distributes fuel from refineries in Texas and Louisiana to consumers along the Atlantic coast shut its main lines running to Greensboro, North Carolina, yesterday following Ida's landfall. Colonial was planning to resume operations along the lines this evening.

Deliveries at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) have also been suspended because of the storm. LOOP, about 20 miles (32km) off the coast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, is the only US port capable of fully loading Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

Ports in Louisiana and Mississippi remained closed this morning as the remnants of Hurricane Ida moved inland.

New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Plaquemines, South Louisiana, St Bernard and the Venice Port Complex in Louisiana all remained closed to traffic. The Mississippi ports of Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula and Port Bienville, also remain closed according to the US Coast Guard.

By Eunice Bridges, Stephen Cunningham and Dylan Chase