US DOE says flooding complicating storm damage assessment efforts

Washington (Platts)--30Aug2005

Massive flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi is making it hard to assess
damage to US energy infrastructure from Hurricane Katrina, a Dept of Energy
official said Tuesday. 
     "We are going to see a substantial impact from this. This will not be a
couple of days and everything is back up and running," Kevin Kolevar, director
of DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, said in an
interview. Deep water and other impediments caused by the storm are hindering
detection of damaged transmission lines and pipelines, Kolevar said. DOE is
relying primarily on energy companies, news reports and other government
agencies for such information. 
     Kolevar, whose office sent seven staffers to the region, said he
hopes to know by Wednesday how Katrina's impact compares with that of
Hurricane Ivan last year. Ivan caused damaged to pipelines, hobbling delivery
of Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas to the mainland. "We know of pipelines
that are down, but are they down because of no electric power or are they down
because of rupture?" Kolevar said. 
     As of Tuesday morning, 2.7-mil utility customers in Alabama, Florida
(where the storm hit earlier), Louisiana and Mississippi were without
electricity and more than 1.5 mil b/d of refinery capacity was shut down, DOE
said. In the Gulf, oil production was down by 1.4-mil b/d, or 95.2% of normal
output, and natural gas production was down by 8.8 Bcf/d, or 87.9%, the
Minerals Management Service said Tuesday afternoon. 
     DOE emergency personnel are working at state energy offices in Alabama,
Georgia and Mississippi. Kolevar said he hoped one of his office's staffers
would reach Louisiana later Tuesday. DOE is assisting FEMA, which oversees the
federal government's broader hurricane recovery efforts.

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