By Erwin Seba and Arathy Somasekhar
HOUSTON (Reuters) – The Texas energy industry braced for storm Beryl’s impact on Monday, with threats from the intensifying weather system forcing the closure of key oil and gas shipping ports, slowing refining and prompting the evacuation of some production sites.
Beryl, which national forecasters say could strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane when it makes U.S. landfall – expected in the early morning hours in the middle-Texas coast – poses problems for the heart of the country’s energy sector.
Texas produces the most oil and natural gas, or more than 40% and 20%, respectively, of any area of the United States.
Over the weekend, the port of Corpus Christi, which is the country’s leading crude oil export hub, closed operations and vessel traffic in preparation for Beryl. The ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City also shut ahead of the landfall.
Chemical company Chemours Co said on Sunday that it was prepared to adjust staffing and secure equipment during and after the storm passed, while Freeport LNG said it had its hurricane preparedness plan in place.
Enbridge Inc, which runs crude oil export facilities near Corpus Christi, also said it had activated emergency plans for assets along or near the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Citgo Petroleum Corp, meanwhile, was reducing production over the weekend at its 165,000 barrel-per-day Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, sources said.
Producers, including Shell and Chevron, also shut in production or evacuated personnel from their Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms.
More than 26,000 homes and businesses were without power in Texas as of Sunday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
Texas-based electric utility CenterPoint said in an email that it was “closely monitoring the situation and making preparations.”
The storm is forecast to turn north-eastward and move farther inland over eastern Texas and Arkansas late Monday and Tuesday.
(Reporting by Marriana Paragga, Erwin Seba, Arathy Somaasekhar; Writing by Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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