Gulf Coast refineries evaluate the health of facilities following Ida

Energy companies are assessing the health of refineries, pipelines, petrochemical plants and offshore oil platforms along the central Gulf of Mexico on Monday, the day after Ida struck Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Companies including Valero Energy Corp., Phillips 66 and Royal Dutch Shell PLC shut roughly 5% of the nation’s refining capacity ahead of the storm, while Colonial Pipeline Co., operator of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, closed two lines that carry fuel from Houston to Greensboro, N.C. Exxon Mobil Corp. had shut some units at its chemicals and refining complex in Baton Rouge.

“There’s no clarity,” around power supplies in the region as of yet, said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Service, or OPIS. “If they say the southeastern parishes that house a lot of big refineries aren’t going to be back on the grid for weeks, it’s a much more serious event.”