No definitive timeline for restart of Phillips 66, Citgo Lake Charles refineries

Phillips 66 and Citgo Petroleum Corp. are continuing to assess damages to their refining operations in Lake Charles, La., following Hurricane Laura’s Aug. 27 landfall along the US Gulf Coast in southwestern Louisiana.

All Phillips 66 employees in storm-affected areas have been accounted for and assessments continue at all impacted locations in the region shuttered ahead of the storm on Aug. 26, which included the company’s 249,000-b/d Lake Charles refining complex and adjacently located Excel Paralubes LLC’s 22,200-b/d plant in Westlake, La.; the Gulf Coast Lubricants Plant in Sulphur, La.; the Beaumont storage terminal in Nederland, Tex.; and the operator’s Lake Charles-area terminals and pipelines, Phillips 66 said on Aug. 31.

With assessments still ongoing at all impacted locations and likely to take several days, Phillips 66 said timelines for operational restarts remain dependent upon assessment findings and available resources, as well as access to electricity and other utilities in the region.

While Citgo Petroleum reported no safety issues or hydrocarbon releases arising from the direct impact of Hurricane Laura at its 425,000-b/d Lake Charles refining complex, the operator confirmed the refinery sustained damage resulting from high winds.

Citgo Petroleum said a detailed assessment—which will take “a number of days” to complete—is currently under way, as are plans to repair the unidentified damage. While the company said it cannot issue a restart schedule until the assessment is completed, Citgo Petroleum did confirm it “does not expect an immediate restart.”

Hurricane Laura made landfall in near Cameron, La., at 1:00 a.m. CST on Aug. 27 as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and a minimum central pressure of 938 mb, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center for the Atlantic region said in real-time post to its official Twitter account during the weather event.