Refinery damage not so bad, official says

GALVESTON, Texas, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Damage caused by Hurricane Ike to refineries off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico isn't as bad as feared, a U.S. Department of Energy official said.

"We do have some refineries that took a pretty good bit of damage. There are at least a couple that will take a long time to come back up." said Kevin Kolevar, Energy Department assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability, during a Tuesday briefing in Texas. "But generally speaking the situation is much more positive than we had initially feared."

While the refineries are still down, Kolevar said they would be coming back online within the next few days. Once they begin the process, it would take seven to 10 days for them to be fully operational.

Because Ike disrupted oil and gas production, prices could rise for gasoline, home heating oil, jet fuel and refined oil product, and there could be shortages or instances where gas stations can't offer a certain type of fuel, he said.

"We do have some constrained product supplies as a result of this," Kolevar said. "We do have a constrained product situation right now and we're going to have to work this bubble through the system as these refineries work to come back on line."