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Electricity outages delay the restart of oil infrastructure after Hurricane Beryl

The restoration of power during the night was slow, causing an obstruction to efforts to restart critical oil infrastructure.

It made landfall on Monday as a Category 1, or very strong, hurricane near the coastal town Matagorda. This is about 100 miles from Houston. The heavy winds shook Texas, knocking down power lines, and damaged property.

Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re estimates that U.S. losses will be at least one billion dollars as damage assessments continue. Weather forecasting firm AccuWeather has issued a preliminary estimate between $28 billion and $32 billion for economic damage in the U.S.

CenterPoint Energy is the largest energy provider in the state. It serves about 1.36 million customers out of the 1.7 millions people who are without electricity.

CenterPoint reported on Wednesday that it had restored electricity to more than 615, 000 customers over the past 24 hours. It added that it is confident it will restore power to 1 million customers by the next day.

After power was restored, Freeport LNG, which is the second largest U.S. terminal for liquefied gas, was ready to resume processing. Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed this. The terminal is not expected to resume LNG exports until the port, currently operating with restrictions, fully opens vessel traffic.

Freeport LNG's spokesperson said that the company intends to resume its liquefaction once post-storm assessments have been completed and when it is safe.

On Wednesday, ports along the Texas Gulf Coast that had closed ahead of Hurricane Harvey reopened, with some restrictions.

Port officials in Freeport confirmed that the port was open and operational, but shipping agents reported certain traffic restrictions. The port facilities were operating on backup power while utility crews restored electricity, officials at the port said on Tuesday.

The Port of Houston announced that it will reopen Wednesday after allowing a few inbound vessels with some restrictions.

The Port of Galveston has begun to operate cruise ships, while cargo operations are expected to resume Wednesday. Rodger Rees said that the port suffered relatively minor damages and some power outages.

Refineries, offshore production sites and other industrial facilities suffered only minor damage. They have returned to normal operation.

Customers have asked if CenterPoint had the right number of crews on hand before the storm. After power has been restored, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick stated that an analysis will be done.

CenterPoint's crews had been positioned in a safe area when the storm struck and deployed as soon as the landfall location was known. Reporting by Arathy S. Somasekhar in Houston, Marianna P. Parraga and Curtis Williams; Editing by Ros. Russell and Rod Nickel

(source: Reuters)