Freeport LNG remained shut July 16 (7/16) more than a week after Hurricane Beryl’s assault on Southeast Texas.
Overall U.S. LNG feedgas averaged 10.92 Bcf/d last week, down 1.06 Bcf/d from the prior week with Freeport LNG offline, as noted in LNG Voyager. Twenty LNG cargoes left U.S. terminals last week, five fewer than the prior week, also reflecting Freeport LNG’s shutdown.
Storms that form in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during hurricane season don’t just dissipate once they make landfall and can inflict havoc on onshore assets. Storm damage and flooding can delay plant restarts, but so can power outages, as we saw when Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas/Louisiana region in July. And while there were no major refining or production assets in the path of Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Florida Panhandle on September 26, widespread damage illustrated the potential risk to onshore infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we will examine how hurricanes have disrupted onshore assets and explain why power restoration is often the Achilles’ heel in plans to resume normal operations.
