Plant closings/slow downs due to high water in MS?

Someone posted yesterday that Exxon was closing this am at 6 ... doesn't Exxon have more than 1 plant? No particular one was specified.

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Industry keeps eye on flooding


Each inch the Mississippi River rises seems to trigger a new set of worries, ranging from protecting equipment to product transportation issues, among dozens of petrochemical plant and other operators clustered along the river.

“We have electrical pumps that feed river water to our plant to use in our processes,” said Gerald Lasseigne, safety and security supervisor for Louisiana at the Mosaic Chemical Co. in St. James Parish. “And the electrical wires to the pumps are below the docks,” he said.

The threat of high water means those electrical systems have to be shut down, nearly stopping production at the company’s phosphate plant, Lasseigne said.

“As the water rises, it gets into the electrical and we have to stop that ahead of time before it becomes a problem. We have to kill all the electric to those pumps,” he added.

Other plants are dealing with transportation issues as flooding elsewhere limits both river and rail traffic.

One plant that depends on a rail connection with Memphis, Tenn., is experiencing delays because of flooding upriver, said Dan Borne, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association, an industry group that’s closely watching the river levels.

“The Memphis connection is not so much a river connection; it’s a rail connection. And they can’t get rail out of Memphis because of the flood. It has impacts on various types of modes of transportation,” Borne said.

Anticipating problems from Mississippi River levels not seen in more 80 years, a number of chemical plants took action last week when docks and other river structures were more accessible, Borne said.

“Some plants are having problems shipping products out,” he said. “Some plants pre-shipped products to customers when they realized that there would be restrictions on certain types of vessels moving up and down the river.”

ExxonMobil has 400 workers keeping surveillance on river activity as the river stage at Baton Rouge continues to climb.

The Mississippi River at Baton Rouge is expected to crest May 22 at 47.5 feet, with levee protection ranging from 47.3 to 51 feet. The river was at 43.4 feet as of 8 p.m. Thursday.

As a precaution, ExxonMobil has put in place some 2,300 sand bags as well as staged water pumps and generators, said Stephanie Cargile, public and government affairs manager.

It should be noted that these river stages are predicted only if the Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge is not opened to divert some of the water flowing down the Mississippi River.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to decide this weekend about opening the Morganza Spillway to relieve water levels. The Bonnet Carre Spillway, north of New Orleans, was opened earlier this week.

If no action is taken, the movement of vessels up and down the river could grind to a near halt as early as Tuesday if the water keeps rising on its projected path, the U.S. Coast Guard is reporting.

As of Thursday, the Carrollton gauge, a river level marker in New Orleans was at 17.1 feet, said Ronald Branch, vice president for government affairs with the Mississippi River Maritime Association. At 17.5 feet restrictions are placed on deep-draft, ocean-going vessels, Branch said.

If no action is taken, the river is expected to reach 18.5 feet by Tuesday, which is the level that the river between Baton Rouge and the Gulf of Mexico is closed to navigational traffic, according Coast Guard advisories.

With the decision about the Morganza Spillway still to be made, the Port of New Orleans told The Associated Press it is preparing for the possible closing of the river to ship traffic as early as Monday. The ultimate decision would come from the Coast Guard, said port spokesman Chris Bonura.

Ships approaching the river from the Gulf are being informed, Bonura said.

If the river is closed, one of the world’s busiest commercial waterways would come to a halt. Barges headed south from the nation’s heartland to the Port of South Louisiana at Reserve, upriver from New Orleans, would be unable to reach grain elevators. Massive grain ships that carry U.S. corn, soybeans and other crops out of the country would be unable to move. Shipments of Venezuelan heavy crude oil that come in by tanker to a refinery in Chalmette would be locked out of the river, though most refineries on the river are fed by pipelines.

“We’re asking for the Morganza Spillway to go ahead and let’s open that up,” said Connie Fabre, executive director of the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance.

Fabre said she’s sensitive to the thousands of acres of cropland and other properties that will be flooded if the spillway is opened, which has not happened since 1973.

“We have to make that decision in light of the communities, and we understand that, and we really want the corps to make a decision as judiciously as possible, and that meets the needs of all Louisianians the best,” Fabre said. “Economic issues aren’t always over-arching. You have to weigh the community. But make a decision.”

It’s not just farmers and rural areas preparing for flooding, should the corps decide to open the Morganza floodgates. Land along the Atchafalaya River is also subject to flooding because of the massive amounts of water that would flow into the Atchafalaya Basin.

Conrad Industries Inc. in Morgan City said it has temporarily shuttered its shipyard along the Atchafalaya River. The yard is outside protective levees.

The company has moved vessels under construction, about 200 employees and contract workers and major equipment to its two shipyards at Amelia along the Intracoastal Waterway. Conrad builds tugboats, offshore supply boats and other vessels, many employed by the offshore oil industry.

Alon Refinery in Krotz Springs is finalizing a plan to further protect its refinery and equipment by constructing an additional levee to prevent floodwater from entering the refinery property.

Other companies like Houston-based Kirby Corp., an inland waterways tank barge operator on the Mississippi, is scaling back second-quarter earnings estimates because of  reduced shipping activity.

The company said in a statement that it is being affected by high water on the Mississippi River and noted that opening the Morganza Spillway could cause conditions that result in the closure of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in the Morgan City area to marine traffic up to several weeks.

“Unfortunately, until the flooding subsides and tank barge traffic resumes, it is not possible for us to accurately assess the financial impact of these historic events,” Joe Pyne, Kirby’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement Thursday.

The Associated Presscontributed to this report.

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