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ENGINE: Americas Bunker Fuel Availability Outlook

Nicholas has caused less lasting damage than Ida, which halved US Gulf Coast fuel oil production last week.

Tropical storm Nicholas hit Houston and other Texan ports without wreaking too much havoc this week. Port authorities and energy suppliers had shut down infrastructure across the Texan coast as they braced for the incoming storm, but the impact was far less severe than when the considerably more powerful Hurricane Ida lashed Louisiana and ports along the Lower Mississippi River two weeks earlier.

Houston Ship Channel reopened on 17 September, under two days after it was shut to vessel traffic in both directions. 20 inbound and seven outbound vessels were waiting to pass through the channel at the time it reopened. Pilots have been working to clear that queue over the past two days.

The ports of Houston, Galveston and Texas City were quick to normalise terminal operations and pilot services for ships working cargo or bunkering. Some bunker suppliers in the Houston area have either low fuel availability or tight delivery schedules for certain dates. Two suppliers are unable to offer VLSFO and LSMGO for dates early next week, while at least four other suppliers can for those dates.

Corpus Christi suspended port operations, but was not directly hit as Nicholas veered to the east before making landfall further up the Texan coast, closer to Freeport. Crude exports have resumed from Corpus Christi’s terminals – some of the country’s biggest.


Freeport was harder hit. Nicholas reached Freeport at an earlier and powerful stage of its trajectory, before it slowed some on its path towards the Houston area. Freeport lost power when the storm hit, causing “significant damage to the local utility network,” port agent Norton Lilly said.
Refineries along the coast of Texas and Louisiana have mostly been unscathed by Nicholas and operating normally, Argus Media and Reuters have reported. Refinery production on the Gulf Coast took a harder and longer-lasting hit from Hurricane Ida.

Gulf Coast refineries produced less than half as much fuel oil last week as in the week before. Fuel oil production slumped to 21,000 b/d in the week to 10 September, down from 50,000 b/d in the previous week, the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures show. Several Louisiana refineries had delayed restarts after Ida.

Despite the production drop, the Gulf Coast region’s fuel oil stockpiles grew by 282,000 bbls on the week to 29.67 million bbls. This was largely because 103,000 b/d less fuel oil was supplied by refineries, blenders and bulk terminals than a week earlier.
A 15,000 b/d increase in fuel oil imports also contributed to build Gulf Coast inventories.

HSFO380 supplies ran dry in Curacao last month, and resupply has been delayed. According to vessel tracking, an HSFO cargo is now set to arrive from a terminal in St. Eustatius, to Curacao on 18 September. The expected bunker delivery for the grade has been pushed back to 23-24 September, from 14-15 September previously, sources say.

Certain suppliers in Balboa have low VLSFO and LSMGO availability for prompt dates. Availability is also low with some suppliers in Colombia’s Barranquilla.
Source: ENGINE (https://engine.online/)

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