LyondellBasell was shutting down its Lake Charles, Louisiana, polypropylene plants on Oct. 8 ahead of Hurricane Delta's Oct. 9 landfall, according to a customer letter obtained by S&P Global Platts.
The company had restarted its 400,000 mt/year and 1 million mt/year units nearly six weeks after Hurricane Laura's Aug. 27 arrival, but with Delta on a similar path, "we have begun to idle our Lake Charles, LA operations," the letter said.
The company confirmed the shutdown.
Sasol, Westlake Chemical and Lotte Chemical did not immediately respond to inquiries about shutdowns at their Lake Charles operations, but they had not fully restarted plants in Laura's aftermath, according to market sources. Local government officials on Oct. 7 issued a mandatory evacuation order for Calcasieu Parish, home to Lake Charles, which was expected to be a factor in ceasing activity with employees under orders to leave the region.
Delta is expected to come ashore as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds. Laura was a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds, which severely damaged major electricity transmission lines and left the damaged region largely without power for weeks. Aerial footage of the city on Oct. 7 showed blue tarps on hundreds of roofs damaged by Laura, still awaiting repair.
LyondellBasell's letter noted that its Lake Charles operations had been in recovery mode in Laura's aftermath, and the company opted to idle plants in the interest of employee safety and potential impacts from Delta.
Delta was slated to come ashore in Cameron Parish just south of Calcasieu Parish, which also was under a mandatory evacuation order. Delta's landfall was expected about 20 miles east of where Laura came ashore in Cameron Parish.
As with Laura, Delta's shifts to the west would appear to spare significant impacts to other petrochemical hubs alongside the Mississippi River, including state capitol Baton Rouge, Geismar, Carville, Norco and Plaquemine. However, storm surge warnings stretched from far southeast Texas to New Orleans, including lakes near some of those operations, according to the National Hurricane Center.
