Refineries Slowly Come Back Online

The Colonial Pipeline is also nearly operating as normal.

September 06, 2017

HOUSTON – U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries are getting back online after Hurricane Harvey’s deluge of rain shut down many of the region’s facilities, according to the Oil Price Information Services (OPIS). Valero Energy Corp. has two of its five refineries shut down by Harvey up and running at pre-storm capacity, with two more getting ready to restart soon. It’s fifth refinery will be back online near the end of September.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil Corp.’s Baytown, Texas, refinery was moving toward restarting as soon as its transportation infrastructure is available. At press time, OPIS did not have updates on refineries owned by eight other oil companies based in the Texas and Louisiana areas impacted by the hurricane.

Late Monday, the Colonial Pipeline resumed transporting refined oil products on its Line 2, The Hill reports. Yesterday, a portion of Line 1 resumed operations as well. “We have been working diligently and expeditiously to complete the repair work and restore service following Hurricane Harvey and the unprecedented flooding in the Gulf Coast last week,” the company said. (Read more on How Refineries and Pipelines Resume Operations.)

Gasoline prices spiked over the Labor Day weekend because of the previous shutdowns. For more information and at resources on hurricanes, and specifically Hurricane Harvey, visit convenience.org/hurricane. Stay tuned for additional insights as Hurricane Irma continues its path this week.

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