Could Katrina affect gas prices

[JDPriestly]

Below is a sampling of statistics on refinery capacity in different states starting from 0 in Florida, for example to Texas, which has the greatest refinery capacity. Louisiana refines a lot of oil. I don't know how much of it might be affected by Katrina. (I also don't know what effect Katrina might have on the offshore drilling in the area if any.

Refineries: There are no refineries located in Florida.

Refineries: Operable distillation capacity of 113,500 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 364,800 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 373,500 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005) (ranked second in production of oil)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 484,961 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 551,400 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 2,004,788 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005) (ranked 4th in production of oil including offshore)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 2,772,723 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005) (ranked 5th in oil production including offshore)

Refineries: Distillation capacity of 4,627,611 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005) (ranked first in production of oil)

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/state/la.html

[etherealtruth]

1. My guess ...

drastic deleterious and lasting effects.

[Pirate Smile]

2. On CNN or MSNBC the Mayor of NO said that he thought gas prices

could go up a dollar or so because of the effect on the refineries.

I already went and filled up both of our cars and I'm in Iowa. Hopefully, it wasn't really necessary. We will see. I bet the price will skyrocket tomorrow.

[Strelnikov_]

3. Yes. If It Hits As A Cat. 5, $10/gal + Is Not Out Of The Question

The storm could knock out 15% of our supply (combination of oil production and foreign oil transshipment). More worrisome is damage to all the refineries in the path. All the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) in the world does no good if you can't refine it, and the refineries were already running near 100%.

Here a link to a post regarding info from 'The Oil Drum' site.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1732375#1732405

I say $10/gal based on past history. The '73 oil shock was a 10% supply shortfall that resulted in a quadrupling of prices.

But, then again, I AM just a drum beater for big oil.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1732375&mesg_id=1733164

[theshadow]

4. Without a doubt.

The timing couldn't be worse since there were problems with refinery accidents and capacity even before this.

[NMDemDist2]

5. yes, it's gonna make a huge impact, while there aren't lots of

refineries in LA there is a major facility for off loading the oil tankers from which the oil is sent on to the refineries

the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) handles 18% of US oil deliveries (at least):

Eighteen percent of U.S. oil production originates in, is transported through, or is processed in Louisiana coastal wetlands with a value of $6.3 billion a year. Almost 24 percent of U.S. natural gas production originates in or is processed in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands with a value of $10.3 billion a year.

Louisiana’s OCS (outer continental shelf) territory is the most extensively developed and matured OCS territory in the United States. It has produced 88.8 percent of the crude oil and condensate and 83.2 percent of the natural gas extracted from all federal OCS territories from the beginning of oil and gas exploration and development in the U.S. through the end of 1996.

As of December 1998, Louisiana offshore leases totaled 5,363, with more than 27 million acres under lease, 130 active drilling rigs, 4,489 producing oil wells and 3,813 producing gas wells.

Our latest annual production data for 1997 shows that 353,846,995 barrels of oil and 3,881,352,353 MCF (thousand cubic feet) of natural gas were produced. Between January and July 1998, oil production was at 227,282,332 barrels, with gas at 2,281,832,468 MCF.

http://www.lacoast.gov/watermarks/1999c-summer/2offshore/