Hurricane Ida hits Rain's USGC calcined petcoke production operations: company

Hurricane Ida, which made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm, has affected the production of USGC calcined petcoke for the aluminum industry, merchant calciner Rain Carbon said Aug. 30.

In a statement emailed to Platts, Alan Chapple, Rain's head of public relations, said operations were temporarily curtailed at its calcination, energy, and terminal facilities at Chalmette, Gramercy, and Norco, Louisiana, as well as Purvis, Mississippi, ahead of the storm, but remained closed Aug. 30.

The Chalmette facility has CPC capacity of around 230,000 mt/year, Chapple said.

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"It will likely be several days until we are able to safely complete our damage assessment, develop plans to restart the aforementioned calcination, energy, and terminal facilities that were temporarily shut down, and assess what — if any — impact that the hurricane will have on our ability to operate, including procuring raw materials from Gulf Coast refineries and delivering products to customers," Chapple wrote in the statement.

He said the company's Lake Charles calciner, which was hit last August by Hurricane Laura, also a Category 4 storm, remained operational. The company's Robinson calciner in Illinois was also operating, the statement said.

Two refinery suppliers to Rain thought hit

Chapple said that operations at some of its key suppliers had been hit by the storm. "We understand that at least two of our major refinery suppliers may have been significantly impacted," he said.

ExxonMobil's 520,000 b/d Baton Rouge refinery was not operating Aug. 30. Initially, around half of the plant was taken down, but later, the whole facility was shut down, a company spokesman said Aug. 30.

A coker at the refinery supplies anode-grade green coke to merchant calciners, including Rain.

As of 9 am CDT Aug. 30, power utility Entergy said it had 899,951 power outages in Louisiana because of Hurricane Ida, and expected those to increase as the storm moved through Mississippi.

"Where weather permitted, our crews were out at first light [Aug. 30], assessing [the] damage when it was safe to do so. ... . It would [be] premature to speculate at this time when power will be restored, given the extent of the damage," the statement said.

One transmission line and tower spanning the Mississippi River, which had withstood Katrina, was reported down, Entergy said, affecting refineries to the east of New Orleans.

On the west side of the Mississippi, Entergy's power outage map shows the two Norco refineries — Shell's 230,611 b/d plant and Valero's 215,000 b/d plant — have access to power.

Updates from the company were not immediately available as to whether Shell had resumed operations at the Norco plant, which had shut down Aug. 27 ahead of the storm. Its coker also supplies anode-grade green coke to US Gulf merchant calciners.

Philipps 66 255,600 b/d Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, also remained shut down Aug. 30. Its coker also supplies anode-grade green coke.

Chapple said many of its employees were likely to have suffered extensive personal property damage, potentially making it hard to get employees to affected plants. There were also several reports of flooded and impassable roads because of extensive storm surge from Ida, also making access challenging.

Oxbow's Baton Rouge calciner thought to still be down

A CPC source said that Oxbow had also shut down its Baton Rouge calciner ahead of Ida, but it was not clear whether the plant had sustained damage. Attempts to reach Oxbow for comment were unsuccessful. It was thought Ida may have tracked far enough east after it made landfall, "which was helpful," the source said. Consequently, it may not have inflicted any real damage at the plant.

But reports of debris-strewn roads could make it hard to access the plant to assess the damage, the source said, adding the Baton Rouge facility was thought to still be offline Aug. 30 and the power situation, or the reliability of power there, was unknown. It would likely take a few days to determine the status of the Baton Rouge plant, the source said.