Posted on 09/06/2005 1:39:39 PM PDT by Steven W.
U.S. energy industry's desperate push to recover from Hurricane Katrina began to pay dividends on Tuesday, as nearly half of the refineries fully or partially closed by the storm returned to service.
Since the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast more than a week ago, crews have been working around the clock to assess damage, make repairs and restore power at eight refineries situated along the Gulf of Mexico
Two of the largest, a 235,000 barrel-per-day plant owned by Motiva Enterprises in Convent, Louisiana, and a 245,000 barrel-per-day plant owned by Marathon Oil Corp. in Garyville, Louisiana, have now been restarted.
Seven others -- located as far north as Illinois -- that were forced to curtail production because of transportation disruptions have also returned to service.
Among those are Exxon Mobil Corp's massive 494,000 bpd plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Total's 285,000 bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.
All told, 20 refineries completely or partially shut down at one point, but recent signs of progress are taking some of the steam out of oil prices. U.S. crude oil futures settled down $1.61 at $65.96 a barrel on Tuesday, and gasoline slumped 12.87 cents, or 5.9 percent, to settle at $2.055 a gallon.
Key to restarting some of the refineries has been the return of crude and petroleum product pipelines, which were previously down and creating supply bottlenecks. Two of the most important, the Colonial Pipeline and the Plantation Pipeline, are now back at 100 percent capacity.
President George W. Bush has been briefed on the work, the White House said.
"We've had a temporary disruption of our energy supply, but there's been some good progress made, major pipelines are up and running, two are fully up and running and two others are near capacity," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.moneycentral.msn.com ...
...as nearly half of the refineries fully or partially closed by the storm returned to service...
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This is not good news for the libs --- :-)
GREENPEACE: "NOOOOooooooooo!!!!"
Can't be, it is good news.
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, and shelter.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston and Dallas but I will add various churches, schools, and other charities in San Antonio and Ft. Worth tonight. My wife is down at Reunion Arena in Dallas as we speak handing out care packages and otherwise ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would be most appreciative if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
With all due respect calling American citizens refugees is messed up and demeaning! These people are not fleeing persecution, war or oppression. Neither are they fleeing to another country...
I couldn't believe my ears this AM listening to old DemoncRAT warhorse, former Senator Bennett Johnstone from LA, bemoaning how the Environmentalist wackos had forbade the DemoncRATs from allowing a shut-off to the 17th St. Canal which would have prevented the levee from being affected by the rising tide & storm waters.
"..forbade the DemoncRATs from allowing a shut-off to the 17th St. Canal which would have prevented the levee from being affected by the rising tide & storm waters."
Is this a plan they wanted to effect right before Katrina hit? I hadn't heard anything of this. It is a rather remarkable piece of news if so.
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