Hurricane Beryl Expected To Weaken To Tropical Storm As It Hits Texas

Hurricane Beryl is forecast to weaken into a tropical storm after making landfall early Monday near Matagorda, Texas, a coastal town about 55 miles southwest of the oil and gas hub of Houston.

The storm led to the closure of oil ports, hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of homes in the state without power. But it’s expected to weaken further into a tropical depression on Tuesday as it moves inland, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The hurricane pummeled Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last week, causing at least 11 deaths and destroying buildings and power lines, Reuters reported.

Also Read: What’s Going On With Cruise Stocks As Category 4 Hurricane Beryl Churns In the Caribbean?

It is expected to make its way over eastern parts of the state on Monday before moving into the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, the NHC said.

Some oil producers, including Shell plc SHEL and Chevron Corporation CVX, had evacuated personnel from their Gulf of Mexico offshore production platforms ahead of the storm.

About 490,000 homes and businesses in Texas lost power, according to PowerOutage.us data, as Beryl wreaked havoc on the state’s utilities, Reuters reported. Texas-based electric utility CenterPoint said in an email on Sunday that it was “closely monitoring the situation and making preparations.”

Beryl hits Texas’ energy infrastructure three years after the state’s grid faltered got slammed with wintry weather in 2021, the Texas Tribune reported.

Price Action: Houston-based oil producers and utilities declined in Monday’s early-morning trading. Shell declined 0.25% to $73.07, while Chevron dipped 0.69% to $153.25 and Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM slipped 1.15% to $112.06.

Houston-based Centerpoint Energy CNP remained unchanged at $30.49.

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