Marketwatch.com has an report on the status of U.S. refineries hit by Hurricane Katrina. 8 went offline after the hurricane. The good news is that 4 of them are already back online. The bad news is that the other four, which represent 5% of the total refinery capacity in the U.S., will not be ready for months.
Hurricane Katrina slammed into the heart of the Louisiana energy industry, shutting eight major refineries that together account for about 12% of total U.S. capacity. Four of those refineries have already restarted.
The remaining four, representing 5% of U.S. capacity, could be down for months, the Energy Department warns. Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) has said it will be months before it can restart its 120,000 barrel a day refinery in Meraux, near Chalmette and also in St. Bernard Parish.
Dwight Bradshaw, senior environmental scientist with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said last week the Chalmette refinery and ConocoPhillips' (COP) 247,000 barrel a day Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, La., will take months to restart, though Chalmette could be the first to return.
Meraux could take as long as six months, said Bradshaw, who has interviewed refinery personnel on site and conducted daily flyovers of the refineries as part of his job of assessing the environmental consequences of the storm's impact on energy facilities. Lingering flood waters, limited road access and sustained power outages will delay the plants' restarts, Bradshaw said.
Meanwhile, gas prices have dropped a few cents to a national average price of 2.92 according to the Fuel Gauge Report. That is down a fourteen cents since the post-Katrina peak of $3.06 but still about 50 cents above already record high pre-Katrina prices.
