Storm’s Impact on Oil Industry Is Felt at Gasoline Pumps
“Satan could not have drawn up a more horrible geographic scenario for knocking out Texas refining.”
Because the storm hit all the major oil centers on the Texas coast — Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont
and Port Arthur — a third of the nation’s refining capacity could be constrained for weeks, he said.
Weekly change in gas prices
Change in each state’s
average of regular gasoline
Change in each state’s average of regular gasoline
in Hawaii, down 1 cent
in Hawaii down 1 cent
Still, the effects are likely to ripple across the globe.
Mexico and other Latin American markets that have come to depend on American gasoline
and crude oil will have to turn to Europe and elsewhere, putting them in competition with American markets for the same supplies and probably compounding the impact of higher prices.
Nationally, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline on Thursday morning jumped 5 cents
from the day before, to $2.45, the highest price of the year, according to the AAA motor club.
