PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Hurricane Katrina closed at least 12 percent of U.S. oil refining capacity Monday and closed nearly all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
Eight refineries on or near the Gulf Coast, representing 12 percent of U.S. capacity, have been closed, officials said.
Because crude oil pipelines going north from the Gulf were running low as a result of the closures, refiners in the Midwest had begun to reduce output, the American Petroleum Institute said.
Meanwhile, 92 percent of oil production had been shutdown and 83 percent of natural gas production had been shutdown. The Gulf accounts for 20 percent of all U.S. gas production, some 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, and 28 percent of crude oil production.
In related action, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been closed and all Mississippi River barge traffic, source of much heating oil transportation, has been halted.
The New York Mercantile Exchange declared force majeure, literally a natural disaster or act of God, on deliveries of natural gas sold under August futures contract because the commodity could not move through a key Louisiana terminal.
