Citgo, Phillips 66 May See Weeks of Downtime from Hurricane Laura’s Damage

Oil refineries owned by Citgo Petroleum Corp. and Phillips 66 in Louisiana may be facing many more weeks of downtime as they wrestle with the loss of power and damage related to Hurricane Laura’s assault on the area last week.

Citgo has assessed the damage to its Lake Charles refinery, which has a capacity of 418,000 barrels a day, as moderate to severe, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Phillips 66 told the department the damage to its 260,000 barrels-per-day refinery is mild to moderate.

Extended downtime for the two refineries, which represent about 4% of U.S. crude processing capacity, could help shrink abundant supplies of gasoline and diesel that have stayed high as the Covid-19 pandemic decimated demand.