Several refineries were still idled without a timeline to get back online while a major oil hub was without power Monday as businesses began to tally damages in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Thousands of offshore oil workers were brought back to shore before Ida's arrival and there's no estimate about when production will resume. Oil and gas companies evacuated 288 offshore facilities which shut down 96% of crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico before the storm. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 17% of U.S. oil production.
Port Fourchon, which sits near the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, had severe damage during the hurricane. Aerial photos of the port taken Monday showed flooding, debris and missing roofs.
"We had extensive damages to the port, said Chett Chiasson, executive director at Port Fourchon. "We had pretty strong storm surge from 12 feet to 15 feet."
By comparison, in 2012 Hurricane Isaac brought 7 feet of storm surge and wind gusts up to 120 miles per hour.
Port officials were still trying to gauge the extent of damages Monday morning and were making plans to survey the facility by air. The communications towers in the region are down and there's no running water. The port estimates every day it is closed, the state's gross domestic product is reduced by $500 million.
"We're still still trying to work our way through the roadways to get to it," Chiasson said. "We might need water trucks, then gas and diesel are going to be critical in the coming days."
On a typical day there are 270 large supply vessels at the port and roughly 1,200 trucks traveling through the area to supply more than 250 companies there.
Essential employees hunkered down at the administrative offices in Cutoff, about 35 miles north of the port. The offices were running off of back-up generators. About 18% of the entire U.S. oil supply passes through the port.
There were about 40 vessels in the port before the storm hit but there are usually hundreds.
"We know of several vessels that broke loose and moved around but as far as we know nobody is seriously hurt, Chiasson said.
Now the port has to assess all navigable waterways and check for underwater debris which is 'time consuming'.
Chiasson said he grew up in the area and has rode out many hurricanes, but he said Ida has been the strongest storm.
Meanwhile in Baton Rouge, the ExxonMobil Refinery and Chemical Complex was still somewhat operational, but not at full capacity. The Baton Rouge complex did not have any significant damages due to the storm but is flaring to keep operations online.
"The refinery is shutting down units to stabilize operations," ExxonMobil said in a statement. "Once we confirm we have access to the needed feedstocks and third party utilities to stabilize our systems we will begin the process of returning to normal operations."
Shell's Norco Manufacturing complex, which includes a crude oil refinery, had some flooding visible from the roadway and was flaring excess hydrocarbons, photos shared by Reuters showed.
Valero's St. Charles and Meraux refineries were idled but the company's other Gulf Coast facilities were still operational. Phillips 66's Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse was shut down before the storm. Diamond Green Diesel, a renewable diesel refinery in Norco was also shut down.
It was not immediately clear if there was any damage to these facilities or when operations would restart.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which sits about 18 miles offshore of Port Fourchon, closed before the storm and declined to offer any updates. LOOP is part of the critical infrastructure network and handles about 1.2 million barrels of oil each day.
The Colonial Pipeline, which brings gasoline and other oil products from Houston to New Jersey and supplies roughly 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast was temporarily shut down due to the storm as well.
Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi estimated that "worst case scenario" is that Hurricane Ida might add between 10 cents and 20 cents to the price of a gallon of gas through September.