Snow Covered Midland Oil Facility in Texas
A record cold wave is freezing the United States, causing a great confusion in the energy industry.
Reuters reported that a winter storm hit the heart of the US energy industry, including Texas, stopping production of 4 million barrels of refined oil a day.
The news agency said the supply of refined oil, which accounts for 21% of all US production, was cut off as a number of refiners shut down facilities in cold weather.
This is the largest since Hurricane Harvey in 2017 hit the Gulf Bay, where U.S. oil facilities are dense.
Motiva Enterprise, the largest refined oil producer in the U.S., has shut down its 600,000 barrels per day refinery in Port Arthur, a port city in eastern Texas, as well as oil refineries in Royal Dutch Cell, ExxonMobil, and Total SE. .
The news agency also said it would take weeks for the oil field to operate normally, saying it is estimated that production of up to 1.2 million barrels of crude oil has ceased in the last five days due to power cuts in the Permian Basin, Texas, the largest oil field in the United States.
Due to this cold wave, US oil prices reached their highest level in 13 months.
West Texas crude WTI for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $60.50, up 1% from the previous trading day.
This is the first time since January of last year that the WTI has exceeded $60 a barrel based on the closing price.
The operation of the’Houston Ship Channel’, an 85km long canal located in the Port of Houston, the largest oil transport port in the United States, is also disrupting.
The canal was closed due to winter storms and reopened for some ships.
But if the cold accompanied by strong winds intensifies, it could close again, canal officials said.