Although Hurricane Ike was nearly 8,000 miles away from Riyadh, it still had an effect on Saudi Arabia. This piece from Saudi Gazette reports that the Saudi government was able to ensure the safety of Saudis working or studying in Texas, evacuating them all.
The piece does not report, however, that the US-Saudi owned facility in Port Arthur—which was strongly hit by the storm—was shut down as the hurricane moved into the area. I cannot find reports on what damage, if any, the refinery sustained. The Motiva Enterprises facility, currently refines 275,000 bpd of petroleum and is expanding its capacity to 600,000 bpd, the largest refinery expansion in the US in many, many years.
Ministry: Saudis in Texas safe
RIYADH – All Saudi nationals in the US state of Texas are safe, the Foreign Ministry announced here on Monday.
Prince Khalid Bin Saud Bin Khalid, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said initial information received by the Ministry from Houston confirmed the safety of Saudi nationals there after Hurricane Ike swept through the state.
The Saudi Consulate in Houston was able to evacuate Saudi students and patients from coastal and nearby hurricane areas to safe hotels and houses further inland, he was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.
A huge relief effort is underway in storm-struck Texas as Houston struggles to get back to business.
…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
September:16:2008 - 14:11
The competing Total and Valero refineries in P.A. were undamaged, they just lost power.
I note that no large oil spills have yet been recorded due to Ike. Oil spills blamed on Hurricane Hanna total seven – that’s right, seven – barrels!
It seems offshore drilling isn’t as much of a risk as the environmentalists thought. We’ve had forty years of technological development and experience since the atlantic/pacific ban, and it shows.
No matter what administration is elected, it thus seems unlikely that the ban will remain in place much longer. Three years for exploration plus four years for development and it isn’t difficult to foresee U.S. offshore production rising sharply.
September:16:2008 - 15:27
I’d love to see that.
Unfortunately, I see a factor you haven’t included: Twenty years of litigation about just where these drilling platforms can be placed. Already, there’s argument about how far off shore they might/must be sited… 5 miles, 10 miles, 50 miles?
If windmills can be stopped because they are deemed ‘unaesthetic’ by powerful Senators from Massachusetts, what’s to stop other powerful figures or groups from spiking oil platforms?
I hope you’re not going to say something like, ‘national interest’.
[Sorry, I'm reading a very good book about the Duke 'rape case'. It's leaving me very, very cynical today.]
September:16:2008 - 22:59
What’s the title? And will you post a review in the ‘Books’ section?
September:17:2008 - 00:00
I won’t be posting a review, as it’s off-topic for the blog.
The book is Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson. The book is very good, but not excellent. One problem is that it came out before DA Nilfong reaped his reward, i.e., the civil and criminal suits and thus is incomplete. Second, the writing is a touch overwrought with too many editorial adjectives/adverbs telling me what I should think.
It does a fine job of detailing the problems created by identify politics within Duke, the spinelessness of the Duke administration, the rush to politically correct judgments, most of the national media, the racial currents that dominates Durham politics, and of course the unbelievable corruption of Nilfong and his assistants.
If one wants a factual book about how a prosecutor can run utterly amok, it’s a good book.