-- Contract driller Global Santa Fe said on Sep 28 two of its
Gulf of Mexico jackup rigs were severely damaged by Hurricane Rita
after being set adrift in the storm and blown about 80 miles from
their drilling sites. The GSF Adriatic VII and GSF High Island III
were both found in shallow waters off the Louisiana coast.
-- ConocoPhillips on Sep 28 said it expected to return its
229,000 b/d Sweeny refinery in Old Ocean, Texas, back to normal
operations later this week. The refinery was not damaged during the
passage of Rita. The major said it expected to begin the restart of
operations at its 239,000 b/d Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery by
mid-October. Floodwaters did not reach the refinery and wind damage
was not expected to significantly impact the restart.
-- ConocoPhillips said its largest offshore US Gulf of Mexico
field, Magnolia, had minimal damage from Rita and that production
was likely to resume shortly, contingent on resumption of operations
at related onshore infrastructure. Initial assessments at three
smaller fields have identified damage, but production impact was not
expected to be significant.
-- ExxonMobil said it was beginning the start-up of its 557,000
b/d refinery in Baytown, Texas. Several units have already been
brought online. The major said it "could not speculate" about when
the facility would return to full operations. ExxonMobil said
post-Rita assessments should be completed later this week its
348,500 Beaumont, Texas, refinery, with priorities include restoring
water and electricity to run the facilities.
-- Royal Dutch/Shell on Sep 27 said power was almost fully
restored to its 333,700 b/d Deer Park refinery and chemical plant
near Houston, which will be restarted once utilities are completely
returned. Shell said pipeline deliveries of diesel and jet fuel from
Deer Park's storage has already begun. The company noted a vessel
carrying crude arrived at Deer Park's dock on Sep 27 with the
partial reopening of the Houston Ship Channel.
-- Eight to nine natural gas processing plants located in Cameron
Parish, Louisiana, have been flooded by Hurricane Rita and are out
of service, Plains All American Pipeline said. Aerial reconnaissance
crews from Plains discovered the damage while surveying the area for
damage to its pipelines. No damage was found to Plains assets.
-- Williams said its Cameron Meadows natural gas processing plant
near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, sustained "significant damage" from
Rita, but said it was still determining the scope and timing of
repair work.
-- Enterprise Product Partners said the 1.1 Bcf/d Toca gas
processing plant in Chalmette, Louisiana, knocked off-line by
flooding from Katrina, is expected to partially return to service in
four weeks. Repairs to the 250,000 Mcf/d Toca II processing train
were expected to be completed in four weeks, while repairs to the
850,000 b/d Toca I train were to take eight weeks to complete.
Enterprise, which has a 60.4% ownership stake in the plant, said the
facility was processing 500,000 Mcf/d before Katrina.
-- Entergy early on Sep 28 said 382,464 of its customers in
Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas remain without power in
the wake of Rita. The company said it has restored power to 383,946
customers since the storm hit the Gulf Coast. The majority of the
outages -- 246,827 -- are in Texas.
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