Recent Winter Weather Hits U.S. Oil Production

Extreme winter conditions that have recently swept the nation have affected not only vehicles but domestic oil production as well, Reuters reports.

North Dakota experienced its oil production being cut in half on Tuesday as a result of the weather. According to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, oil production in the state fell to between 600,000 and 650,000 barrels per day.

TotalEnergies had to evaluate units at its 238,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, after a winter storm caused a plantwide power outage Tuesday morning.

In Baytown, Texas, ExxonMobil’s 564,440-bpd refinery experienced a malfunction with both a gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker and a coker last Monday night due to cold weather. It has since been resumed to normal operation.

Flint Hills Resources’s 343,000-bpd refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, experienced problems because of unusually cold weather–particularly at its West Plant, where freezing rain impacted instrumentation to operate equipment.

Three refineries located in Port Arthur–including the biggest refinery in the U.S., Motiva Enterprises' 626,000-bpd plant–have announced the shutdown of major units, with Motiva having launched a crude unit-coker overhaul on Jan. 8.

Amid the cold snap, oil prices fell this past Tuesday, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures falling by 28 cents to $72.40 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent crude futures are reported to have risen by 14 cents to $78.29 a barrel. RBOB gasoline fell by 24 cents to $2.1195 a gallon, with markets having sufficient supply and refiners possessing large stockpiles, according to Reuters.