More than 45% of total U.S. petroleum refining capacity is located along the Gulf coast, as well as 51% of total U.S. natural gas processing plant capacity.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center – June 13, 2019 – Hurricane Harvey’s impact on the oil and gas industry hasn’t been forgotten. While 2017’s Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane with winds reaching 130 mph, the lesson learned for the industry was all about one word: flooding.
“The rise of onshore [crude oil] production has helped mitigate the risk to production from hurricanes…” Stratas Advisors' senior oil market analyst Ashley Petersen emailed AccuWeather. “The larger danger nowadays is from flooding."
“If you’ll recall, [with] Hurricane Harvey it was actually the sustained rains that caused several refineries to shut down, and this had a much larger impact on refined product prices across the country,” Petersen wrote. Hurricane Harvey was the most significant tropical cyclone rainfall event in recorded U.S. history, both in scope and peak rainfall amounts, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The storm lingered over the middle of the Texas coast, dropping over 40 inches of rain across the region and over 50 inches in some places.
The second tropical storm of the season, Barry, formed over the northern Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. Barry became a hurricane on Saturday morning as it churned onto the central coast of Louisiana.
AccuWeather sees the greatest threat for flooding rainfall to be in Louisiana, where an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches is expected.
But, having learned from Harvey – the first Category 3 or higher hurricane in 12 years to hit the continental United States – and also 2005’s Katrina and 2008’s Gustav, experts know the interconnected nature of the oil and gas industry could mean problems elsewhere in the U.S. because of Gulf Coast flooding.
Source: AccuWeather
