Beryl made landfall near the Texas city on Monday, causing problems for the heart of the US energy sector.
The Texas energy industry is assessing the impact of Hurricane Beryl after the powerful storm slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, shutting down major shipping ports and hitting the oil refining and production sectors.
Beryl made landfall near the coastal town of Matagorda, Texas, on Monday morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 129 km/h (80 mph) and causing problems for the heart of the nation’s energy sector.
The storm strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall, but was downgraded to a tropical storm by mid-morning and is expected to weaken throughout the day. The storm is expected to move across eastern Texas and into the Lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley later this week, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Texas is the largest oil and gas producing state in the US, producing about 40 percent of oil production and 20 percent of gas production.
U.S. crude CLc1 settled 83 cents lower at $82.33 a barrel on Monday as hopes for a ceasefire deal in Gaza eased global supply concerns and capped gains driven by storm-related disruptions.
US fuel futures also traded lower as major refineries along the Gulf Coast so far appeared to experience minimal impact from the storm.
“With the storm having passed over two major production hubs in Corpus Christi and Houston, it appears the threat of regional supply disruptions has passed,” said fuel marketer TAC Energy, which noted that only the Phillips 66 facility in Sweeny, Texas was in the storm’s path.
Phillips 66 said it was still assessing its operations after the storm.
More than 2.7 million homes and businesses in Texas were without power as of midday Monday, according to PowerOutage.us. CenterPoint Energy, which provides electricity to the southern and eastern parts of the state, had at least 2.2 million customers without power, the company said.
High winds battered Houston on Monday morning as streets and waterways were flooded, according to Reuters witnesses and images on social media.
At least two people were killed in the Houston area by falling trees during the storm, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Energy industry hit
Over the weekend, the Port of Corpus Christi, the nation’s leading crude oil export hub, shut down operations and ship traffic in preparation for Hurricane Beryl. The ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City also closed before the storm made landfall.
By midday Monday, the Corpus Christi Ship Channel had reopened with no significant impacts reported from the storm. Some ships had already returned to Corpus Christi to load cargo, according to Matt Smith, an analyst for ship-tracking firm Kpler, though he warned that the congestion could take a day to return to normal.
Gibson Energy said its Gateway crude export terminal in Corpus Christi was operational. Enbridge Inc, which also operates crude export facilities near Corpus Christi, said all of its assets except the Tres Palacios Gas Storage facility were operational.
Terminal operations at the Port of Houston remain suspended and could resume Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement from the port.
“We are still facing rain and wind,” a spokesman told Reuters news agency on Monday.
Shell and Chevron said they had halted production or evacuated personnel from their Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms.
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico produces about 1.8 million barrels of oil per day, about 14 percent of total U.S. production. It is unclear how much production has been shut in because of Beryl.
