Sempra's LNG plant in Louisiana holding up after Hurricane Laura

Sempra Energy's $10 billion liquefied natural gas, or LNG, facility on the Louisiana Gulf Coast appears to have withstood Hurricane Laura, the company officials said in a statement Monday.

Initial evaluations of the Cameron LNG site "indicates minimal flooding and no catastrophic wind damage," the statement said. "The team at Cameron LNG is committed to the restoration of full operations as soon as safely practicable."

The facility is one of many energy and petrochemical facilities scattered on or near the coasts of Louisiana and Texas that faced the brunt of Laura, which made landfall last Thursday morning as a Category 4 hurricane, with gusts near the Cameron LNG site of up to 140 mph.

The death toll from the storm has reached 16, according to the Associated Press.

Sempra officials said more thorough inspections of the Cameron LNG facility _ as well as at a proposed site for a future LNG project in Port Arthur, Texas _ are planned, pending confirmation that they can be done safely and securely. Cameron LNG temporarily shut down operations the day before the storm hit.

Opened in 2019, the plant was built, the company said, to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and is elevated above a major flood stage. A Category 5 hurricane represents the highest level, with sustained winds of 157 mph or higher.

Covering a parcel of land two miles long and a half-mile wide in the town of Hackberry, Louisiana, Cameron LNG ships cargoes of natural gas to destinations around the world. San Diego-based Sempra owns 50.2 percent of Cameron, partnering with French energy giant Total, Mitsui of Japan, and a Japanese investment group that includes Mitsubishi.

The Cameron export facility has so far shipped nearly 100 LNG cargoes totaling more than 6 million metric tons of gas to clients. Sempra expects to earn between $400 million and $450 million per year from Cameron, starting in 2021.

The company said it has pledged $500,000 toward Hurricane Laura relief efforts in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas through its Sempra Energy Foundation, a nonprofit that is funded without ratepayer dollars.

Early reports from other facilities on the area's "energy corridor" also averted major impairments.

The nearby Sabine Pass LNG facility, owned by Cheniere Energy, reported "no significant damage."

A major oil refinery on the Texas Gulf Coast, Motiva, plans to restart operations early this week, according to Reuters, and the neighboring Total SA refinery is waiting for external power to be restored to restart its units.

A fire broke out Thursday at a chemical manufacturing plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana due to a chlorine leak, leading to shelter-in-place orders for those living within one mile of the facility. Firefighters had the blaze under control by Friday.

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