Refineries in Texas Closing Down?

I don't think this would happen. Aren't there federal laws about price gouging?
I know there are plenty of shortages in Houston and along the evacuation route. But I don't see gas prices taking a jump of $1.50 overnight.

 

Not all refineries in Texas will be shutting down, ours will probably be kept going, want me to send you some gas?

 

There are pipe lines that feed product out - if these are affected all bets are off - the market doesn't know what to make of it

Gas prices rise again as Ike gains strength - Sep. 11, 2008

 

Gas has hung steady around $3.45-$3.50 here......any excuse to jack the price and my bet is it will blast up above $4.00/gallon again soon. Damn, I am glad I traded my quad cab v8 pick up for my Prius! arty:.

 

Hmm.. I think the increase is $0.15, not $1.50.

15 cents is the increase in price in RBOB gasoline futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange when I checked this afternoon. Yea, I'm an investor geek.

 

Ike looks like a monster. It literally covers the entire Gulf of Mexico. Surely all those rigs and pipelines will be impacted somehow.

Filled up my car yesterday morning at $3.25/gal. We'll see how things go this weekend. Now would be a good time to have the Prius as a backup generator. Oh well, at least we're stocked up on water, candles and dried noodles.

 

Gas at stations here in the Metroplex jumped about $0.15 yesterday but were the same this morning as last night. There are a couple of refineries shutting down because they are within the evacuation area. Most of the rigs in the Gulf that were shut down for Gustav have not yet begun production.

 

Have you ever heard of anyone being actually charged with price gouging?
Any fine they would pay if convicted woyuld be peanuts compared to what they made...........

 

Here's the concern articulated in a cool weather blog I follow:

"The situation is grim for Port Arthur, Texas, on the Louisiana border. The expected storm surge of 15-20 feet will overtop the city's seawall by six feet, resulting in flooding of the city and a number of major oil refineries. Expect a significant tightening of gas supplies in coming months, due to extensive damage to the oil refineries in the Houston and Port Arthur area."

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground

Prices have popped in St. Louis from $3.59 into the $3.7X range.

 

A couple of stations around here shot up 18-20 cents overnight, but not all have followed suit yet. I just checked on "gas watch" and it looks like several have gone up 5-7 cents since yesterday. Some are still in the $3.45 - $3.59 range.

 

gas went from $3.59 to $3.99 overnight here. i filled up at $3.99 on my way home from work- bad time to get low on gas! folks are reporting $5 gas in raleigh on the radio. we have a full-out panic going on over here because of the approaching hurricane- everyone is thinking of katrina. the governor has declared an abnormal market condition and is enforcing price-gouging laws.

As Ike nears, chain asks for limit on gas buys - Yahoo! News

 

Interesting (and long) Ike blog at:

The Oil Drum | Hurricane Ike, Energy Infrastructure, Refineries and Damage Models Thread #4 (Updated 9/12 20:45 EDT)

 

Four hours after my earlier post gas is averaging $3.69 in the area -- up another ten cents from this afternoon. A friend in Atlanta e-mailed that prices are between $4 and $5 in his area. Crazy!

 

Just watched the 10 pm news and some independent stations in Jackson, MS are charging over $5/gal. Luckily, I filled up yesterday at $3.59.

 

Here it's at $4 and is expected to rise again tomorrow. There was a report of one station about 50 miles from here that was charging $5.45 a gallon. Holy CRAP!!!

 

I filled up both vehicles today at $3.49, couldn't believe it hadn't gone up yet. I used to live down in the middle of that and am very glad not to be sitting there waiting for this one. The surge looked pretty bad on Friday morning even in areas I once frequented.

Having been through the mess when Rita missed Houston, I'm glad I'm not there now. It's awfully disappointing when you can see refineries nearby, but can't get gasoline for 4 or 5 days.

This storm is so big it is going to have a large and sustained impact.