Hurricane Beryl paralyzes the energy capital of the USA

Hurricane Beryl closed ports and halted refinery operations in Texas on Monday as wind speeds of 80 mph hit the energy capital of the USA. The first Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the US this year caused widespread disruptions along the US Gulf Coast, which houses about half of the country’s refining capacity. "We are experiencing the dirty side of a dirty hurricane right now," said Houston Mayor John Whitmire. "We know we have many infrastructure challenges." Beryl struck the US as a category one hurricane. Last week, it had already wreaked havoc in the Caribbean as the earliest category five storm on record. Approximately 2.7 million people in Texas were without power by midday Monday, according to poweroutage.us, while local authorities reported that two people were killed by falling trees. The region’s significance as a global energy hub resulted in worldwide impacts. Oil prices fell by 1 percent as traders were concerned about the effects of refinery outages on crude oil demand. "Beryl has significant impacts on some refineries in Texas that have reduced their production rates," stated Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS. "This lowers the demand for crude oil and likely pressures prices." Marathon Petroleum, one of the largest US refiners, stated that a power outage forced them to flare at their massive 630,000-barrel-per-day Galveston Bay refinery. Citgo reduced production rates at its 175,000-barrel-per-day Corpus Christi refinery, according to the Oil Price Information Service, a consulting firm. Chevron said it followed the “hurricane preparedness procedures” at its 125,000-barrel-per-day Pasadena refinery but "continues to serve its customers." Exporters were also affected as shipping routes were closed. The Port of Corpus Christi -- the largest export hub in the US -- suspended operations on Sunday. Ports in Houston, Galveston, Freeport, and Texas City took similar measures. The storm caused some disruptions to offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about 15 percent of US production, though analysts warned these were less significant. Shell, BP, and Chevron stated they had removed some personnel from offshore platforms in recent days as drillers braced for the storm. Shell shut down its Perdido platform and evacuated all employees. Analysts at oil consultancy Enverus estimated that Perdido, which produced about 78,000 barrels per day in April, would take about a week to fully resume operations. "I think Beryl is more of a warning sign than a market-relevant event," said Tom Kloza of OPIS. "All hurricanes that hit the US destroy demand, but it’s only the rarest storms that suppress supply, and that seems to be the case with Beryl." "[But] Beryl could be the precursor to storms that had much more dramatic global impacts [such as] Katrina and Harvey," he added, referring to destructive storms in 2005 and 2017.