The Texas energy industry is bracing for the impact of Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall near Matagorda, Texas on Monday, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometers per hour). The powerful storm is posing significant challenges for the heart of the country’s energy sector.
Texas is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the United States, accounting for more than 40% and 20% of the nation’s production, respectively. The landfall of Beryl has forced the closure of key oil and gas shipping ports, slowed refining operations, and prompted the evacuation of some production sites.
The port of Corpus Christi, the country’s leading crude oil export hub, closed operations and vessel traffic in preparation for the storm. The ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport, and Texas City were also shut ahead of Beryl’s landfall.
Several energy companies have taken precautionary measures to protect their assets and personnel. Citgo Petroleum Corp reduced production over the weekend at its 165,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi refinery, while Marathon Petroleum and LyondellBasell declined to comment on the status of their refineries.
Shell and Chevron have also shut in production or evacuated personnel from their Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms. The storm has also caused widespread power outages, with nearly 490,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Texas as of Monday morning.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts that Beryl will move over eastern Texas on Monday before passing over the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley later in the week. The storm is expected to weaken as it moves inland, but the impact on the Texas energy industry is likely to be significant.