The Louisiana refinery is preparing to restart under the Barry storm

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Phillips 66 was preparing Sunday to restart Monday the refinery of its refinery in southeastern Louisiana, closed because of the threat of Tropical Storm Barry, the company said.

Barry has cut 73%, or 1.38 million barrels a day, crude oil production in US-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico, said Sunday the US Bureau of Safety and Protection of the United States. Environment (BSEE). This is an increase of 3 percentage points over Saturday.

Hurricane Barry was weakened into a tropical storm when he landed in Louisiana on Saturday, after a move west that seemed to spare the New Orleans lowlands the ## 147 ## 39 mbadive flood dreaded earlier this week.

Five of seven other refineries in southeastern Louisiana flooded by Barry's pbad were still in operation on Sunday, said their owners and / or sources close to operations in the factories.

Phillips 66 closed Friday the 253,600 bpd refinery at Alliance, Louisiana, because of the flood risk and a mandatory evacuation order for residents of Plaquemines Parish, where the refinery is located along the Mississippi River.

The Norco (Louisiana) Refinery Refinery at Royal Pacific Shell Plc (225,300 bpd) broke, but production was unaffected, said sources close to the trade.

Shell spokesman Ray Fisher said the storm had not affected the operations of the Norco refinery and Shell's 211,270 bpd refinery in Louisiana.

The refinery of Exxon Mobil Corp. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was operating normally on Sunday, said company spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry.

The Valero Energy Corp. refinery in Meraux, Louisiana, and the 190,000 bp / d PBF Energy refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, also performed as planned on Sunday, sources said.

The Chalmette refinery, located on the eastern side of New Orleans, slightly reduced its production on Saturday to expand its crude reserves.

The US coastguard reopened Sunday the port of New Orleans.

A spokesperson for Marathon Petroleum Corp did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the company's 564,000 bpd refinery located in Garyville, Louisiana.

A spokeswoman for Valero did not respond to a message asking for the status of the St Charles refinery of 215,000 barrels a day at Norco.

BSEE also reported that 62% of the Gulf's natural gas daily production was closed.

Exxon's Eikenberry said the company was badessing the state of its offshore and onshore activities on Sunday to determine if employees could safely return and start restarting.

As of 1:00 pm CDT (6:00 pm GMT) Sunday Tropical Storm Barry was 15 miles east of Shreveport, Louisiana, and was moving north with sustained winds of 40 mph (65 km / h) ).