Hurricane Francine passes over Louisiana parish with many chem plants

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Ascension parish, home to Geismar and its many chemical plants, was among the regions hardest hit by Hurricane Francine, which has caused hundreds of thousands of power outages.

UTILITIES
Nearly 350,000 power outages were reported in Louisiana, according to the website poweroutage.us.

Ascension and Assumption parishes as well as the coastal parts of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes appear to be among the hardest hit, said Entergy, a power company.

CHEMICAL OPERATIONS
Several chemical companies shut down their plants ahead of Francine’s landfall on Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday, BASF idled operations at Geismar, North Geismar and Vidalia, it said. The company is conducting safety assessments, and operations will resume once those are completed.

Roehm is taking its methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Fortier, Louisiana, offline.

Meanwhile, Dow said its sites in Louisiana are safely resuming normal operations. It is unclear what steps it took in preparation for the storm and whether those steps had any effect on operations or production.

Louisiana is home to just above 25% of the total ethylene capacity in the US, according to the ICIS Supply and Demand Database.

It also has close to 50% of the country’s vinyls chain capacity – for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlorine, ethylene dichloride (EDC), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and caustic soda.

Other significant exposures close to 50% of total US capacity include methanol, ethylbenzene (EB), styrene and low density polyethylene (LDPE).

Upstream, an estimated 38.56% of current US oil production and 48.77% of US natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut in as of Wednesday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

OIL AND GAS
Hurricane Francine caused liquefied natural gas (LNG) loadings to drop 22% this week.

If disruptions to LNG loadings last long enough, it could cause an increase in domestic gas supplies, which could cause prices to fall. That, in turn could lead to a decline in prices for ethane, the predominant feedstock that US crackers use to produce ethylene.

The ports of Cameron and Lake Charles in Louisiana remained closed, according to the US Coast Guard. That halted access to the Cameron LNG plant and Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG.

The Sabine channel near US Sabine Pass LNG, however, was open, though no cargoes have departed the plant since 10 September.

Oil future prices rose by more than a dollar in late morning trading.

LOGISTICS
The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad said on Thursday that it will resume operations at 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) following damage assessments.

The Port of New Orleans has shut down, and railroad companies warned customers of delays as traffic will be diverted following the port’s flood-gate closure.

BNSF has issued a temporary permit embargo affecting all traffic originating or destined to move through the area.

STORM UPDATE
Francine has weakened into a tropical depression, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 35 miles/h (55km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The following map shows Francine’s projected path.

Source: National Hurricane Center

Earlier, the storm made landfall on Wednesday evening as a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained wind speeds of about 100 miles/h, according to the NHC.

Additional reporting by Emily Burleson, Bryan Campbell and Joseph Chang

Thumbnail shows Francine. Image by National Hurricane Center

Track the latest updates on Hurricane Francine and its impact on chemicals on the Topic Page: Storm Season 2024.