Northern Mexico News

TDI-Brooks’ newest vessel R/V Miss Emma McCall has recently completed its first projects for the U.S.-based marine data acquisition services company on behalf of Total and Cairn Energy offshore Mexico. TDI-Brooks has the vessel on a long-term bare-boat charter from Cameron Offshore Boats.The 2003-built Miss Emma is a multi-use oceanographic research vessel outfitted for a wide variety of oceanographic research duties for operations in the Northern/Southern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), U.S. East Coast and elsewhere in the Americas.

Texas-based midstreamer Howard Energy Partners (Hep) announced that it’s completed the expansions of its bulk liquid terminal facilities in Port Arthur and Corpus Christi, Texas.The completion of these projects increases HEP’s Gulf Coast terminal storage capacity to 2.6 million barrels with three ship docks, three barge docks, unit train loading capacity for up to two trains per day, and direct pipeline connectivity through wholly-owned pipelines to seven refineries. HEP began operating terminal facilities in mid-2014.“The substantial expansions at our Port Arthur and Corpus Christi facilities signify HEP’s commitment to designing and constructing fully-engineered facilities that are tailored to meet the exact needs of our customers…

Residents fleeing most powerful storm on U.S. mainland since 2005. Businesses closed and lines of cars streamed out of coastal Texas as officials called for residents to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey, expected to arrive about midnight as the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade. The hurricane is forecast to slam first near Corpus Christi, Texas, drop flooding rains along the central Texas coast and potentially loop back over the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Houston, some models showed. "My urgent message to my fellow Texans is that if you live in a region where evacuation has been ordered, you need to heed that advice and get out of harm's way while you can," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a televised address.

Hurricane Harvey intensified early on Friday into potentially the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade, as authorities warned locals to shelter from what could be life-threatening winds and floods. Harvey is set to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday on the central Texas coast where Corpus Christi and Houston are home to some of the biggest U.S. refineries. Oil and gas operations have already been disrupted and gasoline prices have spiked. "Now is the time to urgently hide from the wind.

A fire broke out on an oil tanker of Mexican state oil company Pemex in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, forcing all the crew to be evacuated in the latest accident to plague the struggling firm. The blaze on the tanker "Burgos" occurred off the coast of Boca del Rio in Veracruz state and all the crew were safe, Pemex said in a tweet. Mexico's Navy said there were 31 crew members and that all had returned to port. Images tweeted by Pemex showed the vessel giving off plumes of smoke as another boat hosed the tanker. Early on Saturday evening, Pemex said that firefighting teams were still working to put out the blaze. The tanker was carrying 80,000 barrels of diesel and 70,000 barrels of gasoline, Mexicos Communications and Transport Ministry said.

Mexican state oil giant Pemex expects to meet its 2015 output target of 646,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the oil-producing region where a platform exploded last week, killing four people and leaving three more missing, a top executive said on Sunday. The fire broke out on Pemex's Abkatun Permanente processing platform in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche at 3.40 a.m. local time on Wednesday, leading to the evacuation of 302 people. The blaze was not extinguished until 7.30 p.m that evening. Speaking in a televised conference from Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, Gustavo Hernandez, Pemex's head of exploration and production, said the incident had led Pemex to shutter production of about 220,000 bpd, with some 170,000 bpd coming back online between Sunday and Monday.

A blaze Friday at the coking plant of the refinery of Mexico's state Pemex in the northern state of Tamaulipas killed one worker and left another 11 wounded, said the oil. Pemex said the coking plant Madero refinery was in maintenance and operations of the refinery, the smallest of the six Pemex and processes an average of 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) were not affected. The company did not elaborate on the status of injured workers. Pemex processes an average 1.24 million bpd in its six refineries. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera)

A cruise ship with more than 100 passengers and crew suffering from a gastrointestinal ailment caused by Norovirus, have arrived in San Diego, a cruise line spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Crown Princess, carrying 3,141 passengers in all, docked in San Diego and planned to continue on to Los Angeles on its normal itinerary along the coast of California and Northern Mexico. Onboard testing proved the presence of Norovirus, said Princess Cruises spokeswoman Karen Candy. Outbreaks of Norovirus have been reported by nearly a dozen cruise lines sailing from U.S. ports in recent years, including Holland America, Celebrity, Cunard Line and a National Geographic cruise on Lindblad Expeditions.