Rita
It is possible that hurricane Rita will have an even greater economic impact than Katrina. A good deal of the American oil and gas industry’s refining capacity is on the Gulf coast of Texas. Which is, on the projections, where Rita, as she goes to Cat 4, is expected to make landfall. Galveston and Houston are potentially at risk.
“The Houston area is ground zero of the refining industry,” said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Tilburg, the Netherlands. “If it suffers the scope of damage caused to refineries in Louisiana by Katrina, we could see rationing and queues at the gas pump. This is something OPEC can’t do anything to remedy.”
bloomberg
There is already speculation about $5.00 a gallon gas. Evacuation will be better than it was for Katrina. There is a good chance fewer lives will be lost. But the potential to cripple the US economy is much greater than Katrina’s.
“Between 15 and 20 percent of the nation’s refining capacity is at risk from this hurricane,” said Bill O’Grady, assistant director of market analysis at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. “A Category 3 or above storm is going to down power lines and refiners will lose power. It will take at least 1 1/2 to 2 weeks before they come back.”
If there is flooding the situation would be much worse, O’Grady said.
bloomberg
With luck Rita may stall, or blow out, or hit where there are very few people and refining capacity. But that’s luck and there is no predicting it.
Written by jay on September 22nd, 2005 with
1 comment.
Read more articles on Rita and Uncategorized.
- [+] Digg: Feature this article
- [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
- [+] Furl: Bookmark this article
#1. September 22nd, 2005, at 4:18 AM.
Rita’s up to Category 5 now. Not good.