(Bloomberg) – The energy crisis that paralyzed the US saw little sign of Tuesday morning as power outages left nearly 5 million customers without electricity, while oil refineries and shale wells were closed during unprecedented icy weather.
Spot power prices in Texas reached a maximum of $ 9,000 per megawatt hour for a fourth consecutive day. To prevent the collapse of their networks, suppliers from North Dakota to Texas are setting up rolling outages for the second consecutive day. The freezer is expected to remain open until at least Wednesday.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., the second-largest oil producer in the Permian basin in western Texas and New Mexico, told buyers it would have to curtail oil deliveries due to complications from the region’s historic freezing.
According to the Associated Press, officers killed two people, presumably due to cold. Medical centers rush to administer vaccines before they get bad. Flights are grounded. More than 2 million barrels per day of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas production are being shut down and massive refineries have halted petrol and diesel production.
The U.S. Office of the Currency Controller has allowed national banks and federal savings banks to close offices affected by emergency weather. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Texas, making more resources available to help.
Read more: How extreme cold has changed in a US energy crisis: QuickTake
All timestamps are EST.
Austin Utility warns residents of long-term suspects (14:45)
The municipal utility in the capital of Austin in Texas has warned residents that power outages could continue until Wednesday.
Although the state’s network operator ‘says conditions are improving, we want customers to have a dynamic situation,’ Austin Energy said in a tweet. “Customers need to be prepared to have no power on Tuesday night and possibly longer.”
Occidental declares Force Majeure as cold closures in Permolie (2:19 pm)
Occidental said the transportation disrupted transportation facilities and forced delays with the receiving and delivery oil by carriers, according to a force majeure notice to customers seen by Bloomberg. Occidental also expects delivery downstream to be limited due to limited deliveries to Midland, Houston and Corpus Christi in Texas.
The force is the first to emerge among the oil giants of the Perm basin in Texas and highlights the deepening of the crisis in America’s energy complex as a result of an unprecedented cold explosion that began on Thursday. More than two million oil production barrels per day have been halted due to freezing, icy roads and power losses.
US energy regulators investigate Grid’s performance (14:19)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electricity Reliability Corporation will conduct a joint investigation into the operations of the large-scale power system during the current winter weather conditions in the Midwest and South, FERC said in a statement.
‘In the coming days, FERC and NERC will formally launch the investigation, which will work with other federal agencies, states, regional entities and utilities to identify problems with the performance of the large power system and, where appropriate, solutions to address those. issues “
Cargill cuts energy use voluntarily (13:42)
Cargill Inc., the world’s largest retailer of crop products, said it was “voluntarily” cutting its energy consumption “to help states get through this cold moment,” according to a statement.
The company said it works with suppliers and customers to keep outages to a minimum, but refuses to provide information on which businesses are reducing energy consumption.
Texas Governor asks LNG Exporter to Restrict Gas Intake (13:11)
The Texas Governor’s Office has asked the Freeport liquefied natural gas export terminal to call back operations in line with the state’s disaster statement amid a polar explosion.
To keep gas and power consumption to a minimum, Freeport will shut down LNG production units 2 and 3, leading to unplanned combustion, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Arctic cold in the central US left nearly 5 million customers without electricity and wreaked havoc on the gas and power markets. Gas production tumbled to a three-year low as the icy weather caused problems and caused fluids in pipes to freeze, forcing the wells and processing plants to close.
LNG exports rose to a record late last year as more terminals began sending an abundance of U.S. shale gas to customers abroad. But the current freeze is likely to call into question LNG’s role in the energy market amid concerns that its implementation is contributing to a shortage of gas for consumers during extreme cold.
Texas electricity supplies continue to fall (12:13 p.m.)
Texas’ power supply declined further Tuesday morning, even as the state’s network operator said it hoped to restore electricity to some homes.
The Texas Electric Reliability Council, which operates the state’s main network, delivered less than 44 gigawatts of power at 11:53 a.m. Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was taken down from 47 gigawatts earlier in the day, and less than at the same time Monday.
Power plants shut down after instruments freeze, says Ercot (11:00)
Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas, are according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director of the Texas Electric Reliability Council, which runs the state’s power grid.
One of the reasons power is returning more slowly than expected on Tuesday is ‘natural gas pressure’, he said. While some wind turbines in West Texas were shut down, it was the least important factor in the outages, Woodfin said. Strong winds helped increase the production of the turbines that remained in service, which offset some losses.
Texas has lost about 30,000 to 35,000 megawatts of generating capacity in recent days when bitter cold swept through the region. On Tuesday morning, the network could not supply about 18,500 megawatts of demand. One megawatt is enough to offer about 200 homes.
Ford, GM and Toyota Plants lose shifts (10:18 am)
Several car manufacturers, including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co., were forced to make production at U.S. plants in the middle of the country insignificant, as a winter weather pattern caused power outages and other outages.
GM canceled the first shift Tuesday at its Arlington, Texas, factory after closing Monday because of rolling outages and workers struggling to get to the facility in the blizzard. The carmaker has not yet decided whether to operate a second shift, a spokesman said.
Blizzard cuts US oil production by more than 2 million barrels per day (10:06 am)
U.S. oil production has plunged by more than 2 million barrels a day as the coldest weather in thirty years brings devastation to key producing states that rarely have to deal with the huge Arctic explosions.
Oil traders and company executives, who asked not to be identified, raised their stock loss forecasts Monday from an earlier estimate of 1.5 million to 1.7 million barrels. They said the losses were particularly large in the Permian Basin, the most fertile U.S. oil region lying across western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The production cuts were also significant in the Eagle Ford, in southern Texas, and the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma.
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