How the oil industry is preparing for Hurricane Isaias
Hurricane Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of the season, is expected to make landfall on Friday evening near the Alabama Gulf Coast and Florida panhandle.
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Isaias → prepare → Coast
Days ago, the oil industry around the U.S. Gulf Coast started preparing.
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industry → prepare → Coast
A segment of the nation's oil infrastructure — like oil rigs and platforms — operates in the region, although the majority of it is further west, towards western Louisiana and Texas.
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majority → operate → Louisiana
Although oil experts are not anticipating major disruptions, oil companies have been taking precautions.
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companies → anticipate → precautions
Shell and BP have evacuated personnel from offshore facilities close to the storm's path, mainly deepwater platforms.
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Shell → evacuate → path
Chevron has evacuated offshore drilling rigs close to the storm's path, and plans to redeploy them once the storm has passed.
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storm → evacuate → them
In an emailed statement, Exxon told NPR they are "closely monitoring the weather.
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they → email → weather
But so far, the storm seems like it will skirt most facilities.
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it → seem → facilities
The storm's path "could be worse," said Debnil Chowdhury, head of Americas refining at S&P Global Energy.
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Chowdhury → say → Energy
After all, the storm is heading east, and not west, toward where the bulk of oil operations — like refineries — are located.
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bulk → head → refineries
The storm is "making a swooping turn, almost just to the east of where the most significant infrastructure is," said Bryan Domangue, the Gulf of America region director for the federal Marine Minerals Administration, who oversees offshore oil and natural gas production.
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who → make → production
"At this point, it's swept just a little south of some of our major deepwater oil and gas facilities, and then it's hugging the eastern boundary of where the infrastructure is."
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infrastructure → sweep → boundary
He added that in addition to evacuating people who work on oil rigs and platforms, which are normal storm precautions, oil operators are doing things like shutting off safety valves below the ocean floor, and moving mobile drilling facilities when possible.
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operators → add → facilities
Of course, it's not unprecedented for the oil industry to face hurricanes.
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industry → face → hurricanes
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in 2005, remain some of the most destructive in the oil and gas industry's history.
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Katrina → remain → history
Nearly 3,000 platforms were in the path of the storms and Katrina destroyed 47 platforms.
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Katrina → destroy → platforms
Other, more recent, hurricanes have not been as destructive but have halted production or reduced capacity — such as Hurricane Francine in 2024, Hurricane Ida in 2021, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
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hurricanes → halt → 2017
Another risk is what would happen if the storm became severe enough to make refineries — which are on land — go offline, analysts told NPR.
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analysts → happen → NPR
If a hurricane knocks out the power, or if a refinery floods, it can take a while to get running again.
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it → knock → while
It's more complicated than restarting an oil rig or mobile drilling operations.
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It → complicate → rig
"Restarting these things is like starting up an old car," said Carl Larry, a manager at Enverus, an energy data and research provider, even if the shutdown is short.
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shutdown → restart → Enverus
"If you did anything in the world, anything in your life, 24/7, stop doing it for one day," he continued, "you're going to have the shakes."
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you → do → shakes
He says, this is because refineries are vast and complex.
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refineries → say → ?
They boil oil down into molecules that are turned into diesel, gasoline, or natural gas liquids like propane.
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that → boil → propane
Pipelines carry crude oil in and refined products out.
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Pipelines → carry → oil
And they have to be heated.
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they → have → ?
"Every one of those little steps is built on power that's generated through the facility on a constant 24/7 basis," Larry said.
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Larry → build → basis
If that power is switched off, the process takes time to restart.
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process → switch → time
Representatives of these refineries did not return requests for comment about their storm preparations, but Ross Allen, a spokesperson for Chevron, told NPR that generally speaking, refineries prepare for storms by trying to mitigate flood risk.
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refineries → return → risk
Chowdhury of S&P Global Energy said these two refineries "account for about 2.5% of total U.S. refining capacity and about 5% the Gulf Coast refining capacity.
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refineries → say → capacity
And Pascagoula specifically is very important to supplying airports throughout the southeast."
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Pascagoula → supply → southeast
While those numbers may not sound big, the global supply of diesel and gas is short, due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
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supply → sound → Iran
So every little bit counts.
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bit → count → ?
American refineries are operating at 92.7% capacity, refining about 17 million barrels of crude a day.
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refineries → operate → crude
With the midterms weeks away, fuel prices are a sensitive political issue: The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.37 and $6.27 for diesel, according to AAA.
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average → accord → AAA
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