US: After Ida’s fury, major hurdles to restart oil and gas plants

Ida knocked out offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, caused ‘catastrophic’ damage to Louisiana’s grid.

Energy companies are beginning a days-long evaluation of facilities hit by Hurricane Ida as widespread power outages and flooding onshore presented major hurdles to restarting oil and gas processing plants. Hurricane Ida knocked out at least 94 percent of offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production and caused “catastrophic” damage to Louisiana’s grid. The loss of power could last three weeks, utilities officials said, slowing efforts to repair and restart energy facilities, which could also take at least two weeks to fully resume operations.