Status of Key U.S. Energy Facilities as of Thursday September 1, 2005

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Status of Key Energy Facilities

Thursday September 1, 2005 2:30 a.m.

Hurricane Katrina, which plowed into the U.S. Gulf Coast energy industry, shut eight refineries and the bulk of all U.S. offshore oil and natural gas production. The current status of key facilities is outlined below:

Refineries

• Valero Energy Corp.: St. Charles refinery in Norco, La., has a refining capacity of 260,000 barrels a day remains shut but suffers no serious damage. The refinery is expected to restart on Sept. 12. Currently has no power and access is restricted, the company says. Krotz Springs refinery that produces 86,000 barrels a day is operating at 70% capacity due to trouble getting supply through pipelines, the company said.

• Motiva Enterprises: Norco, La., refinery that has a capacity of 225,000 barrels a day remains shut. Limited access to the facility has delayed a damage assessment, Motiva says. The company’s Convent, La., refinery also remains shut but has suffered no damage that would affect a restart. Motiva hasn’t given an estimate for a restart date.

• Murphy Oil Corp.: Meraux, La., refinery remains shut and has been evacuated. But Murphy said after a flyover that its 120,000 barrel a day refinery appeared to have suffered less damage than feared.

• Exxon Mobil Corp.: Chalmette, La., refinery that has a capacity of 183,000 barrels a day remains shut and evacuated. Exxon has given no information on damage or a potential restart date and reports flooding in the area has worsened. Baton Rouge refinery that produces 494,000 barrels a day is in “cutback mode,” operating at reduced rates due to supply problems.

• ConocoPhillips: Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, La., that has a capacity of 255,000 barrels a day remains shut. The company has given no information on damage or a potential date for a restart. Plaquemines Parish reports extensive damage and television reports say there are whitecaps on the water in the streets of Belle Chasse, quoting State Treasurer John Kennedy. Exxon says it is doing flyovers.

• Marathon Oil Corp.: Garyville, La., refinery that has a capacity of 245,000 barrels a day remains shut. The company found no significant damage at the refinery, a spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon. The refinery has power, but no start-up date has been planned.

•  Chevron Corp.: Pascagoula, Miss., refinery that has a capacity of 325,000 barrels a day remains shut and evacuated.

• Premcor: Memphis refinery that has a capacity of 190,000 barrels a day is reportedly producing at reduced rates due to crude-oil supply snags.

• Total SA: Port Arthur, Texas, refinery that has a capacity of 180,000 barrels a day is running at reduced rates due to a problem with a hydrogen compressor, not the storm.

Fuel Pipelines and Terminals

• Colonial Pipeline kept mainline from Houston to Greensboro, N.C., shut on Wednesday. The company says it is bringing in generators to provide power and expects limited restoration of service this weekend. The pipeline delivers 95 million gallons a day of fuel from the Gulf Coast to East Coast markets.

• Kinder Morgan Energy Partners‘ Plantation Pipeline remains shut Wednesday due to lack of power. Power restoration is uncertain, according to a spokesman.

• Royal Dutch Shell PLC says Motiva joint venture’s fuel terminals in Kenner, La., and Collins and Meridian, Miss., are closed due to flooding and power outages. Convent distribution terminal is operating. Company has frozen prices charged to fuel wholesalers at its terminals in storm-hit areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

• Exxon Mobil warns some fuel-supply disruptions are inevitable. The company says it is keeping retail gasoline prices at company-owned stations unchanged.

• Chevron is restricting supplies of gasoline to wholesalers from its East Coast terminals.

Crude Oil Supply to Refineries

• Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the Gulf Coast’s key conduit for imported oil, has power back at major Louisiana hubs and is expected to have oil flowing Wednesday. LOOP moves about 1 million barrels a day of oil, 10% of U.S. imports.

• Royal Dutch Shell: Capline pipeline system also has power back at key Louisiana hubs and is expected to have oil flowing Wednesday. The system moves 1.2 million barrels a day of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico and imports from Gulf Coast to Midcontinent refiners.

• Mississippi River traffic to be halted for “many, many days,” U.S. Coast Guard says, while navigation system is repaired. Channel determined clear and river deemed safe for transit; river is a source of crude-oil shipments to refineries such as ExxonMobil Baton Rouge.

Production

• Marathon said that it is in the process of reboarding its platforms in the Gulf of Mexico — three at South Pass, one at Ewing Bank, and the Vermillion platform. The three South Pass platforms and Ewing Bank platform combine to produce 18,500 barrels of oil per day, and 25 million cubic feet of gas.

• U.S. Minerals Management Service says 95% of daily oil output and 88% of daily natural-gas output was shut down in the Gulf of Mexico as of Tuesday.

• Port Fourchon sees no severe flooding, but siltation is a concern and power is out. Thee key facility is needed to support the workers and equipment that will get Gulf platforms pumping again.

• Royal Dutch Shell reports topside damage at Mars oil and gas platform and confirms photo showing what appears to be serious damage.

• Newfield Exploration Co. says its A production platform at Main Pass 138 appears lost in the storm; facility was producing 1,500 barrels a day.

• Kerr-McGee Corp. is restarting 60,000 boe/d Western Gulf output; inspecting central, eastern Gulf, company says.

• Seven semisubmersible rigs are adrift in Gulf of Mexico, U.S. Coast Guard says.

• Noble Corp. semisubmersible rig Jim Thompson broke moorings and was moved 17 miles by the storm. Flyover shows no “damage of a material nature,” the company says.

• GlobalSantaFe Corp. says all five drilling rigs in path of Katrina are accounted for, though two are listing slightly and one drifted off its location and grounded in shallow waters near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Write to Dow Jones Newswires editors at [email protected]

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.