U.S. emergency oil reserve site suffers "considerable" damage from Hurricane Laura

The U.S. Energy Department said that the West Hackberry site of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “sustained considerable damage” from Hurricane Laura and that detailed estimates of the harm done should be out later this week.

The department shut two of the four SPR sites ahead of Laura and the other site, in Big Hill, Texas is back up and fully operational, it said. The West Hackberry is without access to commercial power. “There is no threat to the integrity of the geologically sealed underground caverns, and no danger of contamination or concern for spills,” a department official said.