Several Texas and Louisiana refineries and chemical plants have shuttered operations ahead of Hurricane Laura (currently a Category 3 storm projected to make landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border). In Texas Motiva, Total, and Valero are shutting operations at their respective Port Arthur plants and ExxonMobil is closing its Beaumont plant. In Louisiana Phillips 66 and Citgo are closing their Lake Charles plants. The shutdowns will take more than 2 million bpd of oil refining capacity offline according to sources.
In related news, the Houston Ship Channel closed inbound traffic on Monday evening and planned to shutdown outbound traffic by 10 pm on Tuesday.