(Updates throughout, adds BSEE numbers)
By Marianna Parraga and Jessica Resnick-Ault
HOUSTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The largest U.S. fuel line
resumed partial operations Tuesday as oil and gas facilities
weathered hurricane Nicholas' landfall in Texas, suffering less
damage than in Hurricane Ida two weeks earlier.
Rains, flooding and power outages affected Texas and
Louisiana, which were still trying to recover from Hurricane
Ida. That storm shuttered most U.S. Gulf offshore oil and gas
production.
Power outages in the Houston area caused Colonial Pipeline
to pre-emptively shut down its main gasoline and distillate fuel
lines, the company said in a notice to shippers.
Colonial Pipeline on Tuesday said it had resumed operations
on its main gasoline Line 1, while distillate Line 2 remained
down due to a power outage in the Houston area after Hurricane
Nicholas made landfall.
Royal Dutch Shell halted production at its Perdido
offshore oil platform due to heavy winds, and U.S. liquefied
natural gas producer Freeport LNG said processing at its Texas
coast facility was halted, likely due to a power outage.
The storm caused widespread power outages as it crossed over
the Houston metropolitan area late Monday night and early
Tuesday morning, but that number shrank throughout Tuesday.
Colonial supplies roughly 2.5 million barrels a day of
refined products to some of the busiest U.S. fuel markets,
mostly in the Southeast and East Coast. The line also shut
during Hurricane Ida, but was restarted without incident a few
days after the storm landed.
More than 39% of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico's production of
crude and natural gas remained shut on Tuesday, offshore
drilling regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement (BSEE) said, following Hurricane Ida's passage
through Louisiana.
About 720,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude production and
1.075 billion cubic feet per day of gas were offline, while 39
production platforms continued to be evacuated. Nicholas, which
made landfall in Texas on Monday, is set to reach Louisiana on
Wednesday, bringing more floods and heavy rains to the Gulf's
oil facilities.
Shell said it was ready to restart production at its
offshore Perdido platform once power is restored to a receiving
facility. The company had no plans to return staff to the
offshore facility on Tuesday.
Some 14 inches of rain fell in Galveston while Houston got
almost six inches overnight and into the morning, the National
Weather Service reported. Nicholas, which landed in Texas, had a
much less pronounced effect than Ida on Gulf Coast refining
capacity.
Most Texas refiners were operating on Tuesday. Motiva
Enterprises' 607,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port
Arthur, Texas refinery - the largest in the United States - was
operating normally as Nicholas was passing over the area on
Tuesday morning, said sources familiar with plant operations.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc's 302,800 bpd joint-venture
Deer Park, Texas refinery was also operating normally on
Tuesday, as were Exxon's Baytown and Beaumont refineries.
More than 284,000 homes and businesses in Texas remained
without power on Tuesday afternoon as utilities started
restoring service faster than Tropical Storm Nicholas caused new
outages, according to local utilities. That is down from a peak
of 529,000 customers out in Texas Tuesday morning.
Vessel traffic was idled on Tuesday morning at the Houston
Ship Channel and the Calcasieu Ship Channel. The ports of
Houston, Freeport, Galveston and Texas City were open with
restrictions, however, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Some shippers expect the restrictions set by Texas and
Louisiana ports while Nicholas passes through will add to
ongoing import and export delays from Ida.
(Additional reporting by Laura Sanicola, Erwin Seba, Liz
Hampton and Arpan Varghese; Editing by David Gregorio and Nick
Zieminski)
