The largest deepwater crude oil terminal in the United States has reopened in its entirety after Hurricane Ida forced its closure, a spokesman said Friday, Reuters said.
Louisiana’s offshore oil port has been closed since Aug. 28 in anticipation of Hurricane Ida.
But while LOOP LLC returns to work, 65 (11.61%) of the Gulf of Mexico platforms remain evacuated and 66.36% of all Gulf of Mexico oil production remains offline, or 1.2 millions of barrels a day. 75.55% of all natural gas production also remains closed as of Friday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
Oil production in the United States was severely affected last week and sank to just 10 million barrels a day, a level not seen since February.
Hurricane Ida is the worst hurricane the U.S. extraterrestrial industry has seen in the Gulf of Mexico in 16 years, when Hurricane Katrina disrupted oil production to a certain level for many months, according to Zerohedge.
But Hurricane Ida has caused the largest initial loss of crude oil production that GoM producers have ever seen.
Although LOOP reports that it is open, Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking data does not show any vessels docked at the port on Friday. However, there is a VLCC, destined for Asia, which expects to load crude.
Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday declared force majeure in numerous contracts, and canceled some export charges after damaging Mars’ marine facilities. At least two of the canceled cargoes were destined for China.
Additional VLCCs, including those from China, are heading to LOOP for crude loads this month.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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