Out of stock again! BASF, Dow, Shell and other chemical giants have closed their factories!

Recently, Category 4 hurricane "Ada" made landfall in Louisiana, the heartland of the US energy industry, and is about to intensify to a Category 5 storm (157 mph). One of the strongest storms in the region. Biden warned that Hurricane Ida would be a major storm threatening people's lives.

Hurricane Ida moved towards the New Orleans area after crossing the Gulf of Mexico and had a significant impact on the US energy supply. The hurricane "swept through" the local oil, natural gas and refining businesses and had a significant impact. BASF, Dow, Shin-Etsu, Shell, ExxonMobil and many other petroleum, chemical and refinery plants announced the suspension, reduction and suspension of production International oil prices have also been "bloated up" with equipment production.

Many oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico closed, and international oil prices soared by 11% in a week

As the hurricane continues to intensify, oil and gas exploration and extraction companies in the Gulf of Mexico and refining and chemical plants in Louisiana have ceased production. As of Saturday, 91% of crude oil production capacity (equivalent to approximately 1.65 million barrels per day) and 85% of natural gas production capacity have been closed. The refining and chemical plants along the Mississippi River, with approximately 1.9 million barrels per day of refining and chemical capacity (equivalent to 10% of the total in the United States) have been shut down or their operating rates have been reduced.

Shell: The 225,000 barrels/day oil refinery was closed, and the production of seven offshore platforms and two onshore processing plants was suspended.

Exxon Mobil: Closed 500,000 barrels/day oil refinery and docks and dye supporting facilities; 362,000 barrels/day oil refinery.

Marathon Oil Marathon: Shut down 565,000 barrels per day refinery.

Valero: Close 215,000 barrels/day refinery; 135,000 barrels/day refinery.

Phillips 66: Shut down the 250,000 barrels/day oil refinery.

Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP): announced the suspension of crude oil transportation due to Hurricane Ida.

Colonial Pipeline, a major US pipeline operator, closed two fuel pipelines between Houston, Texas and Greensboro, North Carolina.

American Colonial Pipeline: The pipeline from Houston, Texas to Greensboro, North Carolina will be temporarily closed.

Chevron: It will close the production of six drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuate all workers.

On the whole, the oil companies that shut down oil and gas production capacity include: BP, Shell, Statoil, BHP Billiton, Murphy Oil, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. Companies that have stopped or reduced production at refining and chemical plants include: Phillips 66, PBF, Shell, Marathon, Valero, and Exxon Mobil.

Industry insiders said that after hundreds of offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are closed and evacuated, oil producers may close refineries for 4 to 6 weeks. Affected by this, international oil prices have risen strongly. Last Friday (27th), Brent crude oil closed up 2.21%, and this week it has risen by more than 11%. WTI crude oil closed up by 1.84%, and it has risen by more than 10% this week. Both have set a record since June 2020. The biggest weekly gain.

BASF, Dow, Shell, etc. encounter "force majeure", closing millions of tons of production capacity

Affected by Hurricane Ida, as of the 30th local time, more than 1 million users in Louisiana and 43,000 users in Mississippi had power outages. Power companies have received more than 110,000 reports of power outages, and the chemical industry has also been affected. spread. ExxonMobil, Dow, BASF, Formosa Plastics America, Shin-Etsu, West Lake Chemical and many other chemical companies are facing the threat of typhoon. They have successively announced force majeure and shut down millions of tons of ethylene, propylene, MDI, TDI, PVC and other chemicals. Device.

BASF: At 12:00 on August 29, local time, the plant in Geismar, Louisiana, USA closed its 400,000 tons/year MDI device, 160,000 tons/year TDI device, and 350,000 tons/year polyether multi-component Alcohol plant, 162,000 tons/year BDO device, and 220,000 tons/year EO device.

Dow Chemical: Located in Plaquemine.LA, it involves an ethylene plant with a total production capacity of 1.56 million tons/year, an LLDPE with a total capacity of 544,000 tons/year, a LDPE with 534,000 tons/year, an HDPE plant with a capacity of 750,000 tons/year, and an HDPE plant located in Taft.LA. The LLDPE with a capacity of 800,000 tons/year and the HDPE with a capacity of 750,000 tons/year will be temporarily shut down on August 30, 2021. The specific restart time is yet to be determined.

ExxonMobil: ExxonMobil is located in Baytown.TX involves a 1 million tons/year ethylene/propylene cracking unit, as well as 900,000 tons/year LLDPE, 400,000 tons/year LDPE, 400,000 tons/year HDPE units, 54.4 The metric ton/year LLDPE plant was suspended.

Shell: Suspended 625,000 tons/year and 930,000 tons/year crackers; closed its two plants in Geismar and Norco. Among them, the Norco area has an oil refinery, ethylene and propylene cracking unit and butadiene (BD) unit, and Geismar's plant produces linear alpha olefins (LAO), ethylene glycol (EG), ethylene oxide and glycol ethers .

West Lake Chemical: 860,000 tons of PVC and 720,000 tons of vinyl chloride equipment and its associated chlor-alkali equipment, 560,000 tons of PVC and 720,000 tons of vinyl chloride equipment and its associated chlor-alkali equipment. Before the hurricane, the Geismar and Plaquemine plants were safely closed.

Formosa Plastics USA: 513,000 tons of PVC and 650,000 tons of vinyl chloride plants and their associated chlor-alkali plants.

Shin-Etsu USA: 600,000 tons of PVC and 1.77 million tons of vinyl chloride plants and their associated chlor-alkali plants.

Chalmette Refinery: The Chalmette Refinery in Louisiana, USA, was closed due to a power outage.

Olin: 850,000 tons of liquid chlorine plant; 250,000 tons of liquid chlorine plant OxyChem: 315,000 tons of vinyl chloride plant.

Nova Chemical: Suspend 977,000 tons/year cracking unit.

Sea, land, and air swing across the board, and the global chemical industry chain will be implicated

In addition to local oil, refining, and chemical plants, the typhoon also affected the local transportation situation, disrupted many transportation routes such as sea, land, and air transportation, and caused the shipments of local chemical industries to encounter the whole line. 

Ports including New Orleans, Plaquemines, Southern Louisiana and St. Bernard were closed on Saturday to restrict shipments.

The New Orleans Flood Control Bureau is scheduled to close on Saturday afternoon, which will disrupt all east-west rail lines through New Orleans, including transfer lines for other airlines.

BNSF plans to suspend all rail operations between Lafayette, Louisiana and New Orleans at 12:00 local time on August 28.

Norfolk Southern said that the last flood gate will be closed at 2 pm local time on August 28, which means that its operations will be completely interrupted.

Union Pacific was originally scheduled to suspend operations at its multimodal terminal in Avondale, Louisiana, at 16:00 on August 27, local time.

The landing site of Hurricane Ida is the state of Louisiana, the main oil production base in the southern United States, and the Gulf of Mexico that it passed through is known as the U.S. energy center. After that, the southern states of Alabama, Florida and parts of Mississippi It will also be hit by "Ada". Disasters such as floods, tornadoes, and storm surges may bring about large-scale power outages, equipment damage, etc., and will also cause more local petrochemical companies to suspend and limit production. The sharp drop in market inventory will bring domino effects and tight market supplies. Will reappear, and then affect the global chemical industry chain.