Even before Hurricane Rita makes landfall, the U.S. market has lost 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in gasoline production and another 1.2 million bpd in distillate fuel output after Gulf Coast oil refineries shut down due to the storm, said the government.
Fifteen refineries have shut their operations in preparation for Rita, which on Friday was heading toward the Texas-Louisiana border with winds of nearly 140 miles per hour, the Energy Information Administration said. Four refineries remained offline in the wake of Hurricane Katrina which slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi in late August.
