Gulf Coast Ports Slowly Reopening to LNG After Beryl Strikes

With more than 2 million without power in the Houston area following Hurricane Beryl’s July 8 landfall, and little information on outages from CenterPoint Energy, a workaround can be found using the Whataburger app.

Nissa

Darbonne

Oil and Gas Investor

Tue, 07/09/2024 - 02:50 PM

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Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas in the early hours of July 8, wreaking havoc along its path. Now a tropical storm, Beryl is making its way towards the east coast. (Source: Shutterstock)

By the time Hurricane Beryl barreled across the Texas coastline battering everything in its path, the storm was weakening into a tropical storm. Its wrath remained in force, however, bringing LNG water transport to a halt and exposing millions without power to perilous Texas summer temperatures.

Beryl Landfall — Hurricane Beryl intensified the morning of July 8 as it approached the shore west of the Houston Ship Channel.
*(Source: MyRadar)*

The port of Corpus Christi reopened on July 8 in the aftermath, according to VesselFinder. And two LNG tankers were loading at the Cheniere LNG facility by July 9 at Corpus.

LNG terminals at Sabine Pass and Lake Charles had also reopened. Three LNG tankers were at berth at Cheniere Energy’s docks at Sabine on July 9. At Lake Charles, no LNG tankers were at berth or underway in the morning for Calcasieu Pass LNG or the Sempra Energy facility there.

Meanwhile, the port at Freeport and the Houston Ship Channel remained closed the morning of July 9, according to VesselFinder. Tankers that had returned on July 8 were staged offshore at anchor awaiting reopening. LNG tankers for loading at Freeport LNG were among those poised to launch.

The storm had blown through Matagorda Bay, west of Houston, continuing north into Robertson County, where Comstock Resources and Aethon Energy have deep Haynesville Shale wildcats underway, according to MyRadar.

Oil Slips as Concerns Over Hurricane Damage Ease

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, reported July 9 that Texas power demand within its ISO borders was 15% less than previously expected.

ERCOT data for July 8 realized demand, compared with typical demand. *(Source: ERCOT)*

More than 2 million customers remained without power in Houston and throughout CenterPoint Energy’s service area on July 9, according to its post to social media platform X. CenterPoint is the regulated utility that owns most of the power transmission and other infrastructure in the path of Beryl.

The company posted on the social media platform that power would be restored to 1 million customers by July 10.

However, by the morning of July 9, no trucks were in Houston yet , according to local television station KHOU, citing CenterPoint, in an X post.

CenterPoint turned off its power outage tracker in May after a weather event that crumbled main transmission infrastructure and left 2 million accounts without power.

Most of East Texas went dark on the morning and throughout the day of July 8.

The outage tracker PowerOutage.US noted that in counties CenterPoint serves, the utility was not reporting its outage locations. Instead, it provided estimates, and its numbers were likely underestimated.

BBQ Bryan post showing 12k likes as of Tuesday morning — BBQ Bryan post showing 12k likes as of the morning of July 9. *(Source: X)*

In a workaround, X poster BBQ Bryan reported on the evening of July 8 that the Whataburger restaurant app could be used as an outage tracker, showing locations lit in orange and dark in gray.

The tip was trending through the morning of July 9.

An X poster wrote, “Using the Whataburger app to track power outages after a hurricane Is probably the most Houston thing I can possibly imagine.”

Whataburger is a Texas-born chain.

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Nissa Darbonne

Nissa Darbonne is author of The American Shales and has been a journalist since 1984, beginning in the oil and gas fields of South Louisiana. She writes for Oil and Gas Investor and is actively involved in Hart's conference agendas.