Weeks of recovery ahead for U.S. Gulf onshore oil base

Port Fourchon, America’s largest base supporting the U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil industry, will take weeks to recover after Hurricane Ida tore through the Louisiana community, leaving a wake of destruction in its path.

“How many weeks is a good question,” Chett Chiasson, Greater Lafourche Port Commission executive director, said in an interview with National Public Radio that aired Tuesday. Damage to the port, which services about 90 percent of output from U.S. Gulf deepwater oil and natural gas wells, is extensive and widespread, he said. Louisiana Highway 1 will need to be cleared of debris for heavy equipment to travel south to the port, while navigable waters around the port will have to be surveyed for safe travel, he said.

In addition to power and water being out in the area, the workers themselves are also busy assessing their own home damage, Chiasson said.

More than 250 companies working in the U.S. Gulf use Port Fourchon as a base of operations. It’s a key transit point for multiple crude pipelines that receive barrels produced from the Gulf of Mexico. From Fourchon, pipes head to hubs in Clovelly and St. James, which host large storage facilities and terminals.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, a facility that receives crude flowing on pipes connected to offshore oil platforms, is also based at the Fourchon harbor. Known more commonly known as LOOP, it handles as much as 15 percent of the nation’s crude oil supply. by tanker.

OPEC and its allies expect global oil markets will continue to tighten this year even as they revive output, but then flip into surplus again in 2022. About 95 percent of oil production, and 94 percent of gas output had been shut-in as of Monday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.