Plants will take time to restart

• By CHRIS GAUTREAU
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Sep 6, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The petrochemical industry — a linchpin of the Baton Rouge area economy — continued getting electrical service restored on Friday.
But the process of bringing the industry back to full speed will take several more days, experts said.

Dan Borné, spokesman for the Louisiana Chemical Association, said most plants completely shut down in advance of Hurricane Gustav as a safety precaution. He said there were no reports of environmental incidents or structural damage after the storm.

“All in all, it appears, at least on Friday, that our industry has gotten through this fairly well,” Borné said. “It remains to be seen if any there are any issues as the industry continues ramping up to full processes.”

The petrochemical industry turns out chemicals and raw materials used in a variety of household products such as batteries, detergents, tooth paste, shampoo, plastic goods and food items.

Economist Loren Scott, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, said Louisiana’s industry is the nation’s third largest in terms of the value of manufactured products, trailing only top-ranked Texas and New Jersey.

Connie Fabré, executive director of the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, said Friday most of its members will be open or restarting through the weekend.

Fabré, whose group represents about 50 manufacturers, said the main issue, like other industrial sites, is getting power restored.

The Lake Charles area essentially was unaffected by Gustav, and plants there began restarting within a matter of hours, Borné said.
In the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor along the Mississippi River, however, the plants were among hundreds of thousands of utility customers that lost power.

Service for the plants is being steadily restored, Borné said, and by late Friday, all but one area gasoline refinery should have power.
Even once power is restored, however, the plants need time to power up, Borné said.

“That could take 24 to 72 hours or even more, depending on the process,” Borné said. “A refinery probably takes about nine days to get back to production capability.”

Placid Refining Co. said its Port Allen refinery was partially up and running Friday afternoon, producing about half its normal daily amount of gasoline and about two-thirds its daily amount of low-sulfur diesel fuel.

Meanwhile, about 47 percent of more than 700 stationary offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico remained evacuated Friday, according to the Minerals Management Service in New Orleans. The agency also said that 34 of 121 oil rigs remained unmanned.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port said it resumed offloading oil tankers Friday morning. LOOP, the only U.S. port that offloads supertankers carrying crude oil, reported no damage from Gustav.