Some refineries out of action for months?

[Karmadillo]

On ABC radio (770 out of New York), the always to the far right John Batchelor had a guest (I didn't catch his name) who was an alleged expert in the field of oil. He claimed some of the Gulf Coast refineries would be back in action soon. He also claimed four others would be out for a significant length of time. This means a reduction by 5% in US gasoline supplies. This also means price increases for the foreseeable future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/business/02oil.html?pagewanted=1

The Gulf of Mexico, the nation's largest energy center, was still reeling yesterday, four days after Hurricane Katrina, crippling gasoline supplies in some pockets of the country. In the face of the turmoil, the government stepped up its release of strategic oil stocks to refiners.

The Bush administration said it approved a loan of six million barrels from the emergency reserve to Exxon Mobil, and another one million barrels to Placid Refining. A third company, Valero, will receive 1.5 million barrels. The new supply is, however, far less than what is needed to make up for the expected loss of production from the gulf - a region that accounts for over a quarter of domestic oil supplies.

Much of the gulf area's production and refining remained shut yesterday, but the first signs emerged that at least some parts of the region's intricate energy infrastructure were slowly coming back. Two important pipelines that supply oil products to the East Coast began limited operations again, supported by emergency power supplies. And a huge oil-importing terminal in Louisiana provided reassurance that it would resume receiving oil tankers soon.

Still, nine major Louisiana refineries remained without power, according to the Energy Department. At least four others were running at reduced capacity. In all, at least 1.8 million barrels a day of refining capacity is still down, or about 10 percent of the nation's total.

[KamaAina]

1. One of those four has got to be Chalmette

just below N.O. That's where 100 stranded people just died from famine and dehydration. The whole parish (St. Bernard) is pretty much gone.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Months? Lots of months. Hurricane Season isn't over yet.

No refinery will effectively repair or replace until there's a guarantee that the rigs won't be hammered as soon as they're put up.

[durablend]

3. Start PRAYING now for a warm winter

Or else it's going to get even more ugly than it's been