WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Energy said Monday that a strategic oil reserve in Louisiana had “suffered extensive damage” from Hurricane Laura and that detailed estimates of the damage caused later this week are expected to be released.
The ministry closed two of the four SPR crude oil sites before Laura landed early Thursday morning.The West Hackberry site in Louisiana does not have to advertise electricity, but “there is no risk to the integrity of geologically sealed underground caverns and no danger of contamination.”or fear of spills, ” said a branch official.
The other site that was closed, located in Big Hill, Texas, is back up and running and has made an oil delivery in the past scheduled for the weekend, he said.
Nine oil corporations this spring, adding Exxon Mobil Corp.Chevron Corp and Alon USA Inc [ALJON.UL], has rented an area to buy more than 20 million barrels of oil in the reserve to cope with garage shortages as the coronavirus pandemic hit fuel demand.
West Hackberry has 21 caverns and a garage capacity of 220 million barrels of crude oil.Lately, the DPR has about 650 million barrels of crude basically acid, well above the point required by foreign agreements.
The DPR is ready to handle all emergency exchange requests from refineries due to Laura through its Big Hill sites, Bryan Mound and Bayou Choctaw, he said, the reservation has not won any requests for such deliveries.
Washington built the DPR in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo raised gas costs and broke the U.S. economy.He has organized emergency sales and oil loans to power corporations after storms.More recently, the branch lent 5.2 million barrels of oil after Hurricane Harvey.flooded Texas in 2017.
Reporting through Timothy Gardner; Edited via Marguerita Choy
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