Stories tagged with "hurricane katrina"

How Much Will Gustav and Ike Affect Gas Supplies? An Update.

Posted by Gail the Actuary on September 22, 2008 - 4:20pm
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: diesel, gasoline, hurricane gustav, hurricane ike, hurricane katrina, jet fuel, original [list all tags]

Shortly after Hurricane Ike hit, I wrote an article called Implications of a Ten-Day Refinery Outage. It is a few days later, and we know a little more. The purpose of this article is to give an update on the situation.

Based on what I am seeing now, we are likely to see significant gasoline outages in the next few weeks. These may not be as long-lasting as those with Katrina, but they may temporarily be more severe, at least in some parts of the country. Diesel may or may not be a problem. We are an exporter of diesel, so can theoretically reduce exports if need be. Also distillate (used for diesel) supplies are currently at a more adequate level than are gasoline supplies. Jet fuel stocks seem to be at a relatively adequate level, so shortages may not be a problem.


Figure 1. EIA Weekly Gasoline Stocks (includes blending stocks)

As one can see from Figure 1, EIA weekly gasoline stocks are diving, on a path to 180 million barrels of gasoline or less, in the next week. Weekly gasoline supplies when Katrina hit in 2005 declined, but not nearly to the extent we are seeing today.

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Riders on the Storm: Stopping and Restarting Offshore Oil and Gas

Posted by JoulesBurn on September 8, 2008 - 7:15am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: gulf of mexico, hurricane dennis, hurricane gustav, hurricane ike, hurricane katrina, hurricanes, offshore, original, production platforms, thunder horse [list all tags]

It has been five days since Hurricane Gustav blew through town, and industry is still working to restore the flow of oil and gas from offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico:

Meanwhile, about 47 percent of more than 700 stationary offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico remained evacuated Friday, according to the Minerals Management Service in New Orleans. The agency also said that 34 of 121 oil rigs remained unmanned.

Under the fold the latest from the industry on the LOOP, Port Fourchon, and other infrastructural concerns.

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Dennis, Katrina and Rita - a diary as they happened

Posted by Heading Out on September 1, 2008 - 7:00am
Topic: Sociology/Psychology
Tags: hurricane damage, hurricane dennis, hurricane gustav, hurricane katrina, hurricane rita, loop, the oil storm [list all tags]

One of the benefits of running this site as long as we have is that it can now act as a diary through which, should you wish, you can go back and see how the story unfolded for the three hurricanes that created so much devastation in 2005.

We did not do a lot of reporting on Dennis which came to land in Florida on July 10th, 2005. Though it was this hurricane, the first of the three, that damaged the Thunder Horse drilling platform that has only just been brought back on site, just in time to meet Gustav.

There was a note on the impending threat on July 9 but Prof G hadn’t yet started putting together the resources that he did with Katrina and Rita. However there was a precursor of coming problems when in the post showing Thunder Horse damage it was noted that nine of the rigs damaged by Ivan the year before had not yet been repaired.

Prof G began Katrina coverage on August 26th and you can follow through the successive posts as the risk, and then the damage was described in successive posts. There had been, earlier that summer, a Fox TV movie called “The Oil Storm” in which a hurricane took out The LOOP the offshore oil port, and that was predicted to raise prices from $50 to $70 a barrel. What a difference three years make!

One problem that arose at the time was with the supplies of fuel into South Florida, which got its fuel by water from NOLA, and which for a while ran short. It is interesting to note the optimism that is quoted from the refinery folk about how soon they thought the refineries would be back on line. There were national gas shortages by August 31. As has since developed there is a lot more information in the comments than just in the original posts.

Rita first appears in a comment on September 18, with the main posts starting on September 19th , and the first assessment of damage on Sept 24 just after she came ashore.

All of these have been "teachable" moments. Just as I presume this one will be as well.

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Did Katrina Hide the Real Peak in World Oil Production? and Other Oil Supply Insights

Posted by Gail the Actuary on October 9, 2007 - 9:00am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: graphs, hurricane katrina, oil production, original, peak oil [list all tags]

In this post, I collaborate with Matt Mushalik from Sydney, Australia. Matt is a civil engineer, town and regional planner, peak oil advisor, and member of ASPO Australia. Most of the ideas in the post are Matt's. I have added a little to the analysis, particularly in the area of the Katrina impact.

In this post, we use a graphical approach for analyzing oil production since 2001. This analysis shows that more and more countries are showing declining oil production, and that this decline in production is not being offset by increases in production elsewhere. If this pattern continues, this analysis suggests that we may already be past the peak in world oil production.

We also look at the question of whether the impact of Hurricane Katrina may have hidden the real peak in world oil production. We find that if an adjustment is made for hurricane impacts, the peak month of production seems to be December 2005 on a crude and condensate basis, and September 2005 on an all liquids basis. The higher adjusted peaks, and greater declines since the adjusted peaks, further suggest that we may be post-peak.

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Remember Where the Offshore Rigs Are and What They Can Take?

Posted by Prof. Goose on August 26, 2006 - 10:42am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: gulf of mexico, hurricane katrina, hurricane rita, oil prices, oil rig, peak oil, rig, tropical storm ernesto [list all tags]



This is the GSF High Island III, damaged last year.

Under the fold is a discussion we had last year with our friends at KAC/UCF (a site we'll probably be seeing a lot of if trends continue--and here is a link to their "Hurricane Impacts on Gulf of Mexico Oil Production" (.pdf warning)). The discussion was regarding the structural standards to which offshore rigs are built and their wind tolerances...interesting stuff.

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New Urbanism and the rebuilding of Mississippi

Posted by Yankee on May 23, 2006 - 8:30pm
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: biloxi, hurricane katrina, mississippi, new urbanism [list all tags]

In this week's New York Times magazine, there's an interesting article on plans for rebuilding the Mississippi coast towns that were devastated by Katrina. According to the article, unlike New Orleans, Mississippi has been more successful in jump-starting the plans to rebuild, partly because of better planning and political leadership, and partly because private companies have infused the initiative with a little cash.

When it came time to draw up a plan for Biloxi and surrounding towns, the people in charge decided to call on the Congress for New Urbanism. What happened then was a real study in how American values can clash.

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HC and MMS: Remaining Shut-in Production NOT Likely to Be Rebuilt...

Posted by Prof. Goose on March 10, 2006 - 12:31pm
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: gulf of mexico, hurricane katrina, hurricane rita, oil, oil prices, peak oil [list all tags]

Thanks to Leanan on a good catch of this Houston Chronicle article, which states:
Much of the oil and natural gas production still shut-in after last year's hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico will stay offline because it would not be economical for companies to rebuild the production platforms, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told Congress today.
Which reminded me, we hadn't linked to the MMS shut-in statistics in a while.  They are discussed in the Chronicle article, but here's a link to the MMS stats just for old time's sake.
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Transit-Oriented Redevelopment in New Orleans?

Posted by Super G on January 12, 2006 - 10:17am
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: hurricane katrina, new orleans, new urbanism, transit-oriented development [list all tags]

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission has released a master plan for the rebuilding of the city (Powerpoint, PDF courtesy of NPR). Most of the news coverage of the plan focuses on the controversial process that determines which neighborhoods will be rebuilt. But the plan also embraces transit-oriented development and other new urbanist concepts.

I've excerpted some of the key slides and figures below the fold. Do their ideas have merit? Will they ever get implemented?

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Ending on an Optimistic Note in New Orleans

Posted by Stuart Staniford on January 2, 2006 - 4:38pm
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: hurricane katrina, new orleans, oil prices, peak oil [list all tags]

We end this little three-part photo-essay on where New Orleans is up to with the brightest spot: the French Quarter. I took these shots on New Year's Day.

Shoppers in the French Quarter flea market. Click picture to enlarge.

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Pictures from the Lower 9th Ward

Posted by Stuart Staniford on January 1, 2006 - 12:35pm
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: hurricane katrina, peak oil [list all tags]

Neighborhood in the lower 9th ward. This used to be a street of houses. Click picture to enlarge. Credit: Zoe Hare

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