Are the refineries running?

[DanKellFla]

Just curious. On one hand, I hear that there was little damage to the refineries, and on the other, the Pres announces higher gas prices. I know that it takes a week or two to get them running again.

[Cookiely]

I read on cnn that some were up and running and others are still being checked out and rebooted.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/15/ike.gas/index.html

[wxman57]

Restarting a refinery is not a quick process and it can be very dangerous. Some hadn't even returned to full operation since Rita. It can take a week or several weeks to bring a refinery back to full operation and only IF there was no damage. If a refinery was flooded, then it could take 6 months to a year to come back online.

[Stormtrack]

The main thing that's keeping them from starting up is that a lot of them are still without power. According to a story that just came from the Associated press, Valero, the largest refiner in North America, has now got limited power to 2 of 3 refineries, those in Texas City and Houston, but their refinery in Port Arthur still is without power. Unfortunately, most of the refineries on the upper Texas coast were on the dirty side of Ike.

[TexasSam]

I went to look at Exxon here in Baytown today, the ship docks are in bad shape, many people out working them. The 18 wheeler tanker truck loading area is still locked up, and again many people working on it. The train loading area didn't look to bad, looked like they were trying to load a few 18 wheelers there. Exxon makes there own power, so who knows that might be the reason our little area has power?

[StormWatcher2]

According to the DOE Hurricane Ike Situation Report #5 issued on 9/16/2008 at 10am EDT - 100% of the Port Arthur, Tx Region and the Houston/Galveston Region refineries are still shut down.

However, the good news is that many other refineries on the Gulf Coast, that were impacted by Gustav and Ike, are restarting or are operating at reduced run rates or have returned to normal operations.

The Department of Energy Situation reports address the refineries, the pipelines, electrical grid, and natural gas and the reports give a good narrative about what is being done to bring it all back on line. I think that it is a good read.

Here's the link, if anyone is interested - http://www.energy.gov/

[Jagno]

The refineries (most of them) are operational and running HOWEVER, according to my son who works for Citgo, they can't get the crude in to be refined into fuel due to the high waters and as mentioned above even some docks that are damaged. These ships have been sitting idle in the gulf waiting to come in and deliver the crude but by doing so now would create more flooding in areas that can't take another drop. Hopefully by weeks end and this northern wind the levels will have dropped to normal so that the ships may proceed.

[Bornfree]

I work in a light natural gas refractionater, we separate light stuff ethane, propane, butanes, and gasoline. We have companies waiting to send up product who will soon be shutting down. We have customers who will be running at low rates because we are not running. We will not be up and running any time soon because of government appropriations. Because we do not have government contracts, our repair parts (some ordered last year for capital projects) have been taken and given to the big companies so they could do their repairs.

This winter when the price of propane goes up and up north they can't afford to heat their homes, that will be why. When we get the parts we need is still up in the air. Till then we will do loop checks and minor repairs and clean-up.

[TexasSam]

I went to look at Exxon here in Baytown today, the ship docks are in bad shape, many people out working them. The 18 wheeler tanker truck loading area is still locked up, and again many people working on it. The train loading area didn't look to bad, looked like they were trying to load a few 18 wheelers there. Exxon makes there own power, so who knows that might be the reason our little area has power?

I hate to quote myself, but as of this evening there is no movement at Exxon. No flairs, trains, ships. just a total dead silence. Never been this quiet in 5 years I have lived here.

[digitaldahling]

Norco and Convent (Shell in Louisiana) are up and running. The Woodlands area plant had little to no damage, just a power problem. Port Arthur had damage and flooding, Beaumont had a lot of flooding. That means Shell in Alabama, Chevron in MS and two Shell plants in Louisiana are running and loading as fast as possible. I think some smaller refineries in Louisiana are also back online.

There are no refineries east of the AL/FL line.