hurricane

The Atlantic hurricane season often evokes worries about the oil and refined products industry, even far up the East Coast, thanks to the widespread impact of Superstorm Sandy a dozen years ago. But electricity production could also be at risk should a major storm once again make its way up the Eastern Seaboard thanks to the large-scale wind farms under development there. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll examine the threats, how they might impact Atlantic Coast wind power, and how offshore turbines are designed to withstand severe storms. 

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.

Every year, the biggest wild card regarding Gulf of Mexico (GOM) crude oil production is the severity of the Atlantic hurricane season. A season generally free of major storms in offshore production areas will likely have only a minimal impact, but a summer and early fall with even just one or two powerful hurricanes along certain paths can cause output to plummet, sometimes for extended periods. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at GOM production gains over the years, the degree to which hurricanes and other issues have reduced output in the past, and the new production expected to come online later this decade. 

Crude oil production is off in most U.S. shale plays and at today’s prices will continue falling, but offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) output is resurging like a genie and it looks like 2016 will be another solid year. That means, with existing GOM wells producing at full throttle and new offshore production due online, U.S. production as a whole is down by less than you might expect, given that oil prices are stuck well under $35/Bbl. Today we begin a review of the resilience of GOM oil production, efforts to reduce costs, and new projects coming online.

In the immediate aftermath of disasters like hurricane Isaac, our thoughts focus on the victims and the tremendous damage to homes and infrastructure alike. As a category 1 hurricane Isaac has not so far shown the destructive force that its infamous predecessor, Katrina did in 2005.  In particular energy infrastructure has been shut in by Isaac as a precaution but appears not to have suffered lasting damage. The Gulf of Mexico remains an important center for US crude oil and natural gas production. Today we compare the production shut ins caused by Katrina and Isaac and their impact on the national picture.

Understanding the natural gas market is not for the faint hearted. Natural gas production recently returned to record levels last seen before prices fell through the floor. How could that happen in the face of record storage levels?  It’s all par for the course - in a world where the threat of a major Hurricane no longer impacts the price of natural gas (NYMEX Natural gas closed down 4 cents at $2.614 yesterday).  Today we will look at buoyant natural gas production levels.