Citgo, Phillips 66 update status of post-Laura operations in Lake Charles

Citgo Petroleum Corp. and Phillips 66 are advancing efforts to restart their refining operations in Lake Charles, La., following damages sustained during Hurricane Laura’s Aug. 27 landfall along the US Gulf Coast in southwestern Louisiana (OGJ Online, Sept. 1, 2020).

With preliminary assessment of damages now completed and repair plans now in place, Citgo expects a phased restart of its 425,000-b/d Lake Charles refining complex, with all units anticipated to be back in service by mid to late-October, the operator said on Sept. 11.

While the refinery fared well overall, the complex sustained major damage to most of its cooling towers, minor damage to noncritical tanks, and a large amount of unidentified miscellaneous damage requiring noncritical repairs.

Citgo said repairing the refinery's cooling towers and getting reliable electrical power from the utility grid are critical to restarting the complex. The operator, however, did not reveal a timeline for when repairs would begin.

Despite the complex’s ongoing outage, Citgo did confirm power supplied via generators at its terminals enabled the Lake Charles refinery rack to resume supply of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) to regional customers on Sept. 8.

As of Sept. 9, Phillips 66 said it was continuing to make necessary repairs and initial preparations at its 249,000-b/d Lake Charles refining complex in Westlake, La., for a proposed restart—contingent upon access to reliable electricity and other regional utilities—in the coming weeks.

While Phillips 66 already has resumed operations at both its Beaumont storage terminal in Nederland, Tex., and Gulf Coast Lubricants Plant (GCLP) in Sulphur, La., the company said operations at GCLP remain limited by electric power curtailments.

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, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center for the Atlantic region.