Sitting Ducks In The Gulf: Hurricane Intensity And The Risk Of Long-Term Impacts On Oil & Gas Prices
John Laumer, Philadelphia
A recent guest post from Rocky Mountain Institute points out how vulnerable the USA remains to hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, citing hurricane Gustave as an example [1]. This current post's graphic dramatically displays the risk. The more intense a future hurricane is, the greater the chance of in inland incursion (per the image) doing long term physical damage to refinery equipment and pipelines.
Via::USEIA [2], EIA Report on Hurricane Impacts on U.S. Energy
Heres' an excerpt from the Minerals Management Service explaining how lucky the nation was with Gustav causing little physical damage.
Over the next few days, companies will be completing their damage assessments to petroleum infrastructure. As long as companies continue to report no long-term damage, crude oil prices are not likely to spike significantly higher due to Hurricane Gustav
From: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/siting-ducks-gulf-hurricane-risk.php [3]
It also looks like we'll be going back to $4/gallon gasoline (or more) real soon.