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🌪️ Category 3 Hurricane Helene Approaches Florida, Disrupts Energy Infrastructure 🌪️ Hurricane Helene, the strongest storm this season, is nearing landfall in the Florida Panhandle with sustained winds of 115 mph, threatening significant disruptions to energy infrastructure. While the hurricane is avoiding major oil and gas production areas, companies like bp, Chevron, and Shell have already evacuated personnel and halted operations on several Gulf platforms. 29% of oil production and 17% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut in. Ports like Port Tampa Bay are closed, halting the flow of petroleum and natural gas-related products. Florida utilities brace for widespread power outages as high winds and flooding loom. Stay safe and follow local advisories. #HurricaneHelene #EnergyInfrastructure #OilAndGas #GulfOfMexico #EnergyDisruptions #PowerOutages #StormPreparedness #FloridaPanhandle #EnergyIndustry

In my latest segment on NPR's Texas Standard, Laura Rice and I discuss the various impacts of Hurricane Beryl on the oil and gas markets --> https://lnkd.in/ddw537_9

Just a quick update on approaching hurricane ... Hurricane risk to US LNG exports eases – analyst Hurricane Francine will make landfall today in the US Gulf of Mexico but its path has shifted east and should now pose a reduced risk to most of the US’s LNG capacity, forecasts and data showed on Wednesday. The category 1 hurricane will hit Louisiana later today, missing Texas, and then weaken as it moves north to Mississippi, according to a bulletin published this morning by the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). Most US LNG export capacity is west of the path of the storm, including Freeport (20bcm/year), Corpus Christi (19bcm/year) and Sabine Pass (37bcm/year). However, it could still affect Calcasieu Pass (14bcm/year) and Cameron (18bcm/year), according to Eikland Energy consulting and intelligence firm. “[Calcasieu Pass] seems to be the one site potentially affected,” said Kjell Eikland, the firm’s director, citing iGIS/LNG data. “I presume loadings are cancelled and some precautionary measures are taken,” he said, adding that there was “less chance” of the Cameron facility being affected “beyond adjusting loadings”. LNG has become the single biggest source of gas for Europe in the aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, of which 45% has been sourced from the US so far this year. On Monday, the storm’s path threatened to hit most of the country’s LNG capacity. Freeport was stopped in July for three weeks after Hurricane Beryl, a category 1 storm, damaged the plant. In 2021, Hurricane Nicholas briefly took all three of its trains offline. In 2020, Cameron’s operations were shut down for nearly two months in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. #lng #ontg #natgas #ttf #jkm Find the full story in: https://lnkd.in/dzjNem7j

– Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Texas coast near Matagorda, Texas, in the early morning at US central time on 8 July, bringing storm surge inundation along the Texas coast, from the north entrance to the Padre Island National Seashore to High Island, including Corpus Christi Bay, Matagorda Bay and Galveston Bay – ICIS Alerts. – The Freeport LNG and the Cheniere-operated Corpus Christi LNG facilities in Texas do not have any waiting vessels at terminals. The Cheniere-operated Sabine Pass LNG facility shows three laden vessels near the terminal, the 180,00ocbm GasLog Windsor, the 174,000cbm Santander Knutsen and the 173,000cbm Ribera del Duero Knutsen – ICIS LNG Edge. – Feedgas nominations at the Freeport LNG facility were down to zero on 8 July. – France's Montoir LNG terminal has delayed the restart of LNG send-out after maintenance from 8-22 July, it said in an update on its website. The terminal has been undergoing partial or full planned maintenance since 11 May – ICS Alerts. – The ICIS East Asia Index shows a $1.171/MMBtu premium for the prompt August month to the ICIS TTF Early Day – ICIS data. – Bullish weekly momentum tools and the weekly flow of higher highs and lows since February retain the midterm bullish view for the TTF front month. The maintenance of the price above the 10-week simple moving average (SMA) boosts the scenario of a push up to the weekly 50% retracement at €39.20/MWh – ICIS Technical Analysis – Temperatures in northwest Europe in the week starting 8 July are forecast to be mixed with colder-than-seasonal norms in the UK and neutral to warmer on the continent – MetDesk. – Russia's Sakhalin-2 project is expected to resume production at some point during the week starting 15 July – ICIS Alerts.

Hurricane Beryl came ashore at 4 a.m. Central time with peak winds of 80 mph. The storm is forecasted to produce a “life-threatening” ocean surge and damaging hurricane-force winds. It is the first Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the United States this year. The Texas ports of Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City shut down operations and vessel traffic on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Beryl's landfall, while energy companies such as Kinder Morgan, Inc., Freeport LNG, Cheniere Energy, Inc. and Chevron implemented precautionary measures, including facility closures and production adjustments. The port closures could pause crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, oil shipments to refineries and motor fuel deliveries. LNG analysts stressed that the primary concern is the storm's potential impact on refinery infrastructure . #texasports #hurricanes #hurricaneberyl #exports #energyindustry #oilandgasindustry #refineries #infrastructure

Unfortunately, Hurricane Helene is forecasted to make landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the eastern Florida Panhandle, with wind speeds of 115 mph. While the storm’s path takes it away from areas near Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the impact on energy infrastructure is still significant. As of yesterday (25th September, 12.30 ET), nearly 29% of oil production/511,000bpd and 17% of natural gas production/313 mcfpd on offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have been suspended, according to BSEE. Major companies like bp, Chevron, and Shell have evacuated staff from 17 production platforms, making up around 5% of the Gulf’s manned platforms. The U.S. Coast Guard reports multiple port closures along the Gulf Coast, halting inbound and outbound traffic, including at Port Tampa Bay, where an estimated 17 million tons of petroleum and natural gas products move through. Florida is now bracing for widespread power outages due to the expected high winds, flooding, and storm surges. As always, my thoughts are with all those impacted and affected. Data and image sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). #OilAndGas #HurricaneHelene #EnergyInfrastructure #Florida #EnergyResilience #OilProduction #NaturalGas #EnergySecurity #PetroleumIndustry #Upstream #Midstream #Downstream #EnergySupply #OilMarkets #CrudeOil #EnergyDisruption #RenewableEnergy #LNG

Is the US power grid really that resilient? Up to 3 million people in Texas are without power following hurricane Beryl striking the coast. What does this mean for the resilience of the grid when a storm that made landfall as only a category one could cause this much disruption? We are likely to see a historic number of storms this year in the gulf and it will truly stress the southeast grid. As the weather is becoming more erratic it is imperative that utility stakeholders (including regulators) recognize the need to upgrade the grid and to put in place the technology to forecast and respond to major events. Just as importantly is the need to not just replace like for like when damaged but to take into account the higher likelihood of storms and damage and invest in more resilient infrastructure wherever possible. https://lnkd.in/eVMNpveD

Is Hurricane Francine set to cause further disruption?   With the tropical storm strengthening into a Category 1 hurricane overnight and there's a chance this may develop into a Category 2 by the time it makes landfall.   From an oil and gas perspective the region is home to about 15% of US oil production and 2% of natural gas output.   As reported by Reuters the storm is poised to become a major test for new LNG export plants in Louisiana. Sempra's Cameron LNG, Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass LNG and Tellurian Inc.'s Driftwood LNG development are in the crosshairs of Francine.   As always, we're tracking it's development in the Vortexa platform. To those that may be impacted, stay safe.

Officially through my first real hurricane, and of course I was working the whole time! Here's some early assessments of the energy industry's responses to Hurricane Beryl: https://bit.ly/4cPQmc6