Beryl made landfall near a Texas town on Monday, posing problems for the heart of the US energy sector.
The Texas energy industry was assessing the impact of Hurricane Beryl after the powerful storm slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, shutting down key shipping ports and disrupting the oil production and refining sectors.
Beryl made landfall near the coastal city of Matagorda, Texas, on Monday morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (129 kph) and posing problems for the heart of the country's energy sector.
The storm had strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane before landfall, but was downgraded to a tropical storm by mid-morning and is expected to weaken later in the day. It is forecast to move across eastern Texas and into the Lower Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley later in the week, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Texas is the largest oil and gas producing state in the United States, accounting for about 40 percent of oil production and 20 percent of gas production.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 fell 83 cents to $82.33 a barrel on Monday as hopes for a Gaza ceasefire deal eased concerns about global supply and limited gains driven by storm-related disruptions.
U.S. fuel futures were also trading lower as major refineries along the Gulf Coast so far appeared to have suffered minimal impacts from the storm.
“As the storm has crossed the needle between the two major production hubs in Corpus Christi and Houston, it appears the threat of regional supply disruptions has passed,” fuel marketer TAC Energy said, noting that only the Phillips 66 facility in Sweeny, Texas, was in the storm's immediate path.
Phillips 66 said it was still evaluating its operations after the storm.
According to PowerOutage.us, more than 2.7 million Texas homes and businesses were without power as of midday Monday. CenterPoint Energy, which supplies electricity to southern and eastern parts of the state, had at least 2.2 million customers without power, according to the company.
Strong winds lashed Houston on Monday morning as streets and waterways flooded, according to a Reuters witness and images on social media.
At least two people died in the Houston area as a result of falling trees during the storm, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The energy industry is affected
Over the weekend, the Port of Corpus Christi, the nation's main crude oil export hub, shut down operations and vessel traffic in preparation for Beryl. The ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City were also closed ahead of the storm's arrival.
By midday Monday, the Corpus Christi Ship Channel had reopened with no significant impacts from the storm. Some ships were already heading back to Corpus Christi to load, according to Matt Smith, an analyst with ship-tracking firm Kpler, though he cautioned that congestion could take a day to normalize.
Gibson Energy said its Gateway crude oil export terminal in Corpus Christi was operational. Enbridge Inc, which also operates crude oil export facilities near Corpus Christi, said all of its assets except its Tres Palacios gas storage facility were operational.
Terminal operations at the Port of Houston remained suspended and could resume Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement from the port.
“We are still dealing with rain and wind,” a spokesman told Reuters news agency on Monday.
Shell and Chevron said they had shut production or evacuated staff from their offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico produces about 1.8 million barrels of oil a day, roughly 14 percent of total U.S. production. It was not immediately clear how much production had been disrupted as a result of Beryl.
