It’s been a year since Hurricane Harvey made landfall and devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, and the Atlantic Basin is once again entering peak hurricane season. Among the widespread and prolonged effects of Harvey was the disruption of refinery and refined product pipeline capacity along the Gulf Coast, which then reverberated in downstream markets across Texas, and the U.S. East Coast and Midwest regions. As such, a closer look at Harvey’s timeline provides key insights into the importance of Gulf Coast refineries to the broader U.S. market. Today, we continue our series on Gulf Coast refining and pipeline infrastructure, and how a natural disaster along the coast can impact the rest of the country.
Canadian crude output is rising, requiring new export routes. As traditional pathways face constraints, the U.S. Rockies—especially the Guernsey, WY hub—are emerging as key corridors for moving Canadian heavy crude to downstream markets, including the Gulf Coast.
In the first blog of this three-part series, we set the stage for a discussion of the events that unfolded during Hurricane Harvey, including a description of the Gulf Coast refined product infrastructure and its connectivity to the rest of the country. As was mentioned in Part 1, the Gulf Coast has the largest concentration of refineries in the U.S. with more than 8.4 MMb/d of installed crude distillation capacity between Corpus Christi, TX, and Southern Mississippi. When a natural disaster hits, a lot of infrastructure can get shut down or damaged, and fuel deliveries can become an issue across the country. With that in mind, today we’ll cover the chronology of Hurricane Harvey’s development as well as refinery and refined product pipeline outages along the coast as the storm unleashed its fury.
On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a forecast that said a tropical disturbance — the beginnings of what would become Harvey — was sitting over the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico (red “x” in Figure 1 below) and had a 70% chance of development within the next 48 hours. At that point in time, the storm was expected to move into the Bay of Campeche, through the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and potentially make landfall in Texas somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston.
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About the song
"After the Storm" is the last track on Mumford & Sons’ debut studio album, Sigh No More, which was released in October 2009. The song was written by Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwane. It’s about hope, redemption, and that which came before, and that which lies ahead. The Sigh No More LP went to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and was certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Personnel on the record are: Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, guitar and drums), Ben Lovett (vocals and keyboards), Winston Marshall (vocals, guitar and banjo), and Ted Dwane (vocals and bass).
Mumford & Sons was formed in London in 2007. The group has recorded three studio albums, two live albums, 11 EPs, and 16 singles to date. They have received two Grammy Awards, four Billboard Music Awards and one Ivor Novello Award. Mumford & Sons have four concert dates booked in October of this year, including three appearances at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans. They are rumored to be working on their fourth studio album.
For those of us on the Gulf Coast, recovery is still ongoing from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. Over 300,000 structures in the Gulf Coast region were flooded or destroyed and repairs are still underway. If you would like to donate to an organization engaged in rebuilding homes on the Gulf Coast, we would encourage you to look into SBP, Rebuilding Together Houston, or Habitat for Humanity.
Comments
Were the preceived shortages as far away as Dallas and ElPaso real or a panic created senario? The general public and definitly the media just dont know about the many refined product terminals throughout most population centers....but how many days supply do our major cities have in these terminals ?