{"id":331780,"date":"2026-01-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/noticias\/winter-storm-sends-u-s-energy-sector-reeling\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:16:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:16:55","slug":"winter-storm-sends-u-s-energy-sector-reeling","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/winter-storm-sends-u-s-energy-sector-reeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter storm sends U.S. energy sector reeling."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The severe winter storm Fern<\/strong> crippled part of the U.S. energy infrastructure over the past weekend, causing temporary losses of up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd)<\/strong> in crude oil production, representing about 15% of the national total<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

Analysts such as Energy Aspects<\/strong> confirmed that peak outages were reached on Saturday. Although a gradual recovery is expected, the impact has exposed the industry’<\/strong>s vulnerability to extreme weather events<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

Impact on crude oil production<\/h2>\n\n

The Permian Basin<\/strong>, one of the most important regions for oil production in the US, suffered most of the damage. Estimates indicate a loss of up to 1.5 million bpd<\/strong>, resulting from frozen equipment, blocked hatches and mechanical failures due to low temperatures. <\/p>\n\n

Companies such as Chevron<\/a><\/strong> reported frozen hatches<\/strong> at its Midland, Texas, facility. ConocoPhillips<\/strong> reduced its production by at least 175,000 bpd, according to sources close to the operation. <\/p>\n\n

Impact on natural gas<\/h2>\n\n

Winter storm Fern also hit natural gas production very hard, with the natural gas<\/a><\/strong>The effects were felt immediately in the markets; gas futures rose nearly 30% in a single day, reaching $6.80 per million dollars per million dollars per day (bcfd)<\/strong>. The effects were immediately felt in the markets; gas futures rose nearly 30% in a single day<\/strong>, reaching $6.80 per million BTU<\/strong>, their highest level since December 2022. <\/p>\n\n

In North Dakota, the country’s third largest oil producer, production fell between 80,000 and 110,000 bpd, while wellhead gas also suffered significant declines.<\/p>\n\n

Refineries paralyzed by extreme cold<\/h2>\n\n

Several refineries<\/strong> on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest were forced to suspend operations<\/strong>. ExxonMobil<\/strong> shut down units at its Baytown, Texas petrochemical complex and Cenovus Energy<\/strong> reported mechanical failures at its 172,000 bpd capacity Lima, Ohio plant, whose restart could be delayed until the end of the week.<\/p>\n\n

Outages were also reported at facilities of companies such as Occidental Petroleum and Targa Resources<\/strong>, with at least a dozen failures at compressor stations and natural gas processing plants.<\/p>\n\n

The electrical system under pressure<\/h2>\n\n

More than 810,000 customers<\/strong> remained without power Monday as a direct result of the weather event. Southeastern and Gulf Coast states were the hardest hit, including Texas. <\/p>\n\n

The PJM Interconnection<\/strong> power grid, the largest in the country, reported generation outages equivalent to 16% of its committed capacity<\/strong>, which represented some 22.4 GW out of service. Despite this pressure, demand was met, although spot electricity prices climbed to US$200 per MWh<\/strong> on average. <\/p>\n\n

In areas such as New England, daily prices rose 82%<\/strong>, while in PJM West (Pennsylvania and Maryland) increases exceeded 360%<\/strong>, reaching the highest levels since January 2014.<\/p>\n\n

Recovery underway, but with caveats for the future<\/h2>\n\n

According to forecasts, full production could be fully restored by January 30<\/strong>, weather permitting. Even so, this new episode makes clear the need to strengthen the prevention prevention and response protocols<\/a><\/strong> and response protocols throughout the energy chain<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile, the market is closely watching operations in the Permian Basin, refinery performance and the evolution of the power grid in the regions most affected by the winter storm.<\/p>\n\n

Source: Reuters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photo: Shutterstock<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Production in the Permian Basin fell to 1.5 million bpd, as refineries and power grids face operational stresses from extreme weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10019,"featured_media":331721,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categoria_noticias":[13026,13036],"etiqueta_noticias":[],"class_list":["post-331780","noticias","type-noticias","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria_noticias-energy","categoria_noticias-oil-and-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/331780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticias"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/331780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria_noticias?post=331780"},{"taxonomy":"etiqueta_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etiqueta_noticias?post=331780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}