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Hurricane Rita heaps more misery on Gulf energy industry Storm causing evacuations, production shut-ins, refinery closures across Gulf region still suffering from effects of Katrina Ray Tyson Petroleum News Contributing Writer
The double whammy of monstrous hurricanes Katrina and now Rita on the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas industry could add up to a natural disaster of biblical proportions as Rita approached the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast spewing 175 mph winds, the third strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin.
As was the case with Katrina nearly a month earlier, Rita ballooned into a huge Category 5 hurricane after crossing southern Florida and entering the Gulf on Sept. 21, forcing oil workers in Rita’s broad path to evacuate offshore production platforms and drilling rigs.
Rita was downgraded to a strong Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph expected at mid-day Sept. 22, as the storm moved into shallower waters of the Gulf.
“But this is still a very dangerous hurricane,” a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center warned, adding that ocean storm surges up to 20 feet and greater could be expected in coastal areas, along with waves up to 30 feet and greater. Shut-ins remain from Katrina Before Rita entered the Gulf, about 56 percent of oil and 34 percent of daily natural gas production in the Gulf remained shut-in due to Katrina, which swept through producing areas of the Gulf a few weeks earlier causing widespread facility and pipeline damage and major supply disruptions. More than 95 percent of daily production was shut-in during that storm’s peak.
Since Rita’s entrance, 92 percent or 1.4 million barrels of oil and 66 percent or 6.6 billion cubic feet of daily natural gas production was shut-in as of Sept. 22, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Additionally, 74 percent of 819 manned platforms and 65 percent of 134 drilling rigs were evacuated in the Gulf, MMS said.
Moreover, since industry began evacuating the Gulf ahead of Katrina on Aug. 26, a total of 28.5 million barrels of oil and 131.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas have been shut-in. That’s equivalent to 5.2 percent of the Gulf’s annual oil production and 3.6 percent of the region’s annual gas production. Refineries shutting down Meanwhile, refineries along the Gulf Coast were shutting down ahead of Rita, including Shell’s big Deer Park refinery on the storm-vulnerable Houston Ship Channel. The two-dozen refiners along the Texas coast alone process about a quarter of the U.S. crude supply.
“We did learn from Katrina that to wait is not the right thing to do,” Shell spokesman David McKinney told Fox News the morning of Sept. 22. “Within the hour we will have our refinery and chemical unit here completely shut down. It’s a ghost town around here.”
In what was described as the biggest traffic jam in U.S. history, more than a million residents reportedly fled Houston, America’s fourth largest city, and other coastal towns located in Rita’s enormous 300-mile-wide path. Traffic was said to be backed up 100 miles on Interstate 45 from Galveston north through Houston and beyond.
The National Hurricane Center initially predicted Rita’s eye would come ashore near Galveston either late Sept. 23 or early Sept. 24 as a category four or five hurricane. Galveston, a barrier island and popular Texas resort about 50 miles south of Houston, was devastated by a Category 4 hurricane in 1900, inundating the island and killing more than 6,000 people. It stands as the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
However, the hurricane center said Rita appeared to be moving in a slight easterly direction, meaning Rita’s eye could make landfall east of Galveston-Houston and more toward Louisiana. Nearly a month ago Katrina flattened coastal areas of southeastern Louisiana, killing just over 1,000 people at last count and causing billions of dollars in property damage.
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