Houston – If you think gasoline prices are high now, consider the eye-popping possibilities if another monster storm pummels the Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season, the way Katrina and Rita battered the petroleum-rich waters in 2005.
The petroleum industry has spent nearly two years trying to repair the damage from those historic gulf hurricanes, rebuilding the complex web of platforms, pipelines and refineries in a region that produces roughly 25 percent of the nation’s oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said it expects a busy hurricane season, forecasting 13 to 17 tropical storms, up to 10 of which could become hurricanes.
Already, gasoline prices have climbed higher than post-Katrina-and-Rita prices. Analysts say prices are certain to shoot higher, $4 a gallon, perhaps, if and when the season’s first storm enters the Gulf of Mexico.
The average U.S. retail price of unleaded regular gasoline hit an all-time high of $3.227 a gallon Thursday, AAA reported. That’s closing in on the inflation-adjusted peak of $3.29 a gallon in March 1981, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
As they prepared to fix the gulf’s devastated oil and gas facilities, industry representatives realized standard repairs weren’t enough. So the companies that own the platforms, drill the wells and manage the pipelines have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve and strengthen their operations. Moorings are stronger, pipelines deeper, backup power in greater supply.
Katrina and Rita destroyed 113 of the gulf’s 4,000 oil and gas platforms and damaged 52.
On the refining side, some have raised critical equipment so it won’t flood.
To have staff available, Shell has arranged to truck in base camps – with lodging, showers and food preparation – for hundreds of workers about eight hours after a storm passes.
