A damaged oil pipeline component that disrupted output at severaloffshoreU.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms was repaired late Friday, a Louisiana official said, with producers moving to reactivate some of the halted production.
A failed flange connecting two onshore pipelines operated by Shell PlcSHEL.Lin Louisiana leaked an estimated two barrels of oil. The oil, which spilled onto an area covered with gravel, has been removed, said Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, and the flange had been repaired by Friday evening, he said.
The spill halted operation of two pipelines that bring oil from several production facilities off the Louisiana coast, curtailing about 600,000 barrels per day of output from Shell, Chevron CorpCVX.Nand EquinorEQNR.OL, according to two people familiar withoffshoreoperations.
On Friday evening, the Amberjack and Mars pipelines that were stopped by the leak were back online and returning to normal service, after crews completed the repairs at the Fourchon booster station, Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski said.
Shell is also in the process of ramping up production at its three platforms that deliver Mars sour crude, an oil grade popular with refiners in the United States and Asia, Babski added.
Chevron, which had three production facilities shut by the leak, said it is ramping up production at its /St. Malo, Tahiti and Big Foot platforms. Equinor’s Titan platform was also disrupted.
Mars crude oil prices had initially strengthened to about a 50-cent discount to U.S. crude oil futuresCLc1on news of the leak on Thursday, but eased to trade at a midpoint of a $1.40 discount on Friday as the outage appeared short-lived.
Crude oil futures prices slipped by about 2%, also on expectations that supply disruptions caused by pipeline outages would be short-lived.
International benchmark Brent crude futuresLCOc1fell $1.45, or 1.5%, to settle at $98.15 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crudeCLc1closed down $2.25, or 2.4%, at $92.09 a barrel. [O/R]
