Energy Prospectus

It is a beautiful day in Sugar Land, Texas but we are still watching the Brazos River rise.

The river is expected to crest late tonight at about 56 feet, which is two feet above the all-time record and a foot above what the levee system protecting First Colony was designed to handle. Susan & I just got back from a walk up to the levee, which is about three blocks from our home.
> Our levee district (FC LID #2) appears to be safe. We went to the top of the levee that is right on the river and water is still 10 feet from the top.
> Our only concern is that the water floods the next levee district southeast of ours and then tops the levee between our two neighborhoods. That area has water in the streets now.
> People are inspecting the levee system 24/7 now, looking for leaks. They have found a few and immediately call in workers to sand bag or shore them up.
> They are installing another big pump at our retention pond with a twelve inch piping system. If water begins to come in from the river they will fire up our regular big pump and this additional pump to do whatever they can to keep water out of our homes.
> The engineer that we talked to sound very confident that they can handle it. We hope so.
> Avalon, the area just west of us, has water in the streets and maybe a few homes. Their pumps failed / got clogged up and it is the rain water that flooded the streets (not river water).

Oil & Gas Industry Impact:

425 MBOEPD shut in just in the Gulf of Mexico

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has released today’s Tropical Storm Harvey Activity Statistics, outlining the effects of the storm on activities in the Gulf.

According to the BSEE:
102 production platforms have been evacuated, just under 14% of the 737 manned platforms in the GOM.
These shutdowns mean about 324 MBOPD, or 18.5% of the current oil production in the GOM, has been shut in.
In addition, 611 MMcf/d, or just under 19% of all gas production is offline.

BSEE said that its numbers are based on daily reports submitted to the BSEE by offshore operators.

Read: http://www.oilandgas360.com/nearly-20-o ... aign_2015)

The whole world is feeling the pinch after Harvey knocks Texas energy offline. CNBC.
The whole world is feeling the pinch of the shutdown of the Texas energy industry. The logistics that move oil and fuel are snarled—or just not operating at all—after Harvey's catastrophic flooding caused widespread outages of energy operations along the Gulf Coast. The shutdowns have the potential to ripple across the global supply chain and impact prices. As of Wednesday, well over 20 percent of U.S. refining capacity was shut down. Harvey shows just how important the U.S. has become to the world's energy supply. In the nine years since the last major hurricane hit Texas, the U.S. has nearly doubled the amount of crude it produces to the point where it now challenges Russia and Saudi Arabia in the top tier of oil producers. It has also turned from being an importer of gasoline and diesel to being a net exporter on a major scale, sending cargoes to far-flung places like Mexico, Brazil, Belgium and China.
Texas itself was producing just about 1 million barrels of crude oil from its wells each day when it was hit by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
As Harvey arrived last weekend, its oil field production topped 3.4 million barrels a day — more than most OPEC members including Angola, Kuwait, Nigeria, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.

Gasoline Surges as Storm Harvey Closes Major U.S. Fuel Pipeline. Bloomberg.
Gasoline prices surged in New York, extending its longest rally since 2013 as an important conduit of fuel from the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. East Coast began to close due to the effects of Tropical Storm Harvey. Motor fuel prices climbed as much as 6.6 percent in New York, advancing for an eighth session, while crude oil was little changed. Harvey has shuttered about 23 percent of U.S. refining capacity, potentially cutting fuel-making ability to the lowest level since 2008 and depriving the Colonial Pipeline of supplies. Its operator was forced to shut the main diesel line late Wednesday and planned to halt its gasoline line Thursday, meaning motorists from Maine to Florida may soon see higher prices at the pump. As gasoline surged to a two-year high, U.S. oil prices lost about 4 percent since Harvey made landfall as demand from refiners fell. This sent cracks -- the premium of the refined fuel over crude -- higher in New York, while the storm also triggered a flurry of trans-Atlantic gasoline trading and disrupted exports of liquefied petroleum gas, causing prices to rise in Asia.

Explosions reported at flooded Crosby chemical plant after Harvey flooding. Houston Chronicle.
The Harris County Emergency Operations Center reported two explosions and black smoke coming from the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby early Thursday, the company said in a statement. Arkema said Harris County officials notified the company about the explosions around 2 a.m. Thursday, adding that residents may hear additional explosions because the product is stored in multiple locations within the plant, which is 25 miles northeast of downtown Houston. Nearby residents should stay inside, turn off their air conditioning and close their windows and doors. "You shouldn't be here, but if you haven't left, shelter in place," Arkema spokesman Jeff Carr said. "That's our advice." The company expects up to six more explosions, Carr said, since the plant has eight containers of organic peroxide. The company said it had agreed with local authorities that, because of the volatile chemicals involved, "the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out. The plan all along from the fire marshal was that if it catches fire, let it burn itself out and contain it," said Jason Spencer, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office.