Westlake Chemical said Oct. 12 that initial assessments after Delta's Oct. 9 landfall showed "very limited physical damage" to its Lake Charles complex, and facilities were "in the process of restarting."
The timing of those restarts depends on restoration of electrical power, industrial gases and other feedstocks and utilities, the company said.
Sasol said Oct. 10 that preliminary damage assessments were underway, with no apparent damage to process equipment or flooding issues having been found at its Lake Charles complex, though the site lost some electrical power supply.
"We will resume the coordinated startup sequence of Sasol's Lake Charles facilities when it is safe to do so," the company said, noting, like Westlake, that startups depend on availability of electric power and feedstocks.
LyondellBasell and Lotte Chemical did not immediately respond to inquiries about the status of their Lake Charles operations on Oct. 12.
Delta came ashore as a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds early evening Oct. 9, weakening as it swiftly moved inland on a path near Hurricane Laura's Aug. 27 landfall.
Laura was a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds, and came ashore about 15 miles east of Delta's landfall. Laura severely damaged major electricity transmission lines in Lake Charles, leaving major chemical facilities there shut down in September, awaiting restoration of full load power to allow comprehensive damage assessments of their systems.
As Delta approached, Westlake, Sasol and LyondellBasell shut down units they had restarted. Lotte had not yet restarted its 700,000 mt/year monoethylene glycol plant and upstream joint-venture 1 million mt/year cracker, market sources said.
