Sept 12 (Askume) – Power plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast have cut back operations and evacuated some generating sites as Hurricane Francine hit southern Louisiana.
The US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory that on the eve of the storm’s landfall, the center upgraded the hurricane from a Category 1 to a Category 2 and later downgraded it to a tropical storm.
About 39% of crude oil production and 49% of natural gas output in the US Gulf of Mexico was shut down on Wednesday as Hurricane Francine headed toward the Louisiana coast , the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said . Such disruptions could hit US oil supplies, putting pressure on domestic oil and offshore crude oil prices.
The Gulf of Mexico contributes about 15% of the U.S.’s total domestic oil production and 2% of total natural gas production, according to federal data.
Hurricane Francine could disrupt about 1.5 million barrels of US oil production in September and reduce Gulf of Mexico output by about 50,000 barrels per day, UBS said in a report.
The Port of Brownsville near the Mexican border and other smaller terminals in Texas are closed, while other ports such as Houston, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Texas City and Freeport are under restrictions. The ports of Houma, Morgantown and the Louisiana offshore oil port are closed to shipping, according to the US Coast Guard.
