whatever refined products they have in storage, will instantly be worth far more. they will ramp up the price on whatever they have "in the tank", that's already been paid for and refined.
they will do just fine.
they will do just fine.
Supply will be cut for weeks. If the refineries are under water, there won't be any access to "storage."
Some of you people sound like Democrats, screaming and yelling at "big oil." O'Reilly notwithstanding, the oil companies are not trying to screw the consumer.
I never heard a peep out of anybody when oil was $15 a barrel ten years ago and gas was $.87 a gallon.
That depends on how badly Valero's refineries are damaged and how long it takes to repair them. They only keep a couple weeks of products in inventory, so if half of their refineries are down for more than a month they will end up losing a lot of money because of the lost production and repair costs. Insurance will probably cover most of their repair costs but the lost production could be very costly.
It's looking like a short-sighted decision to build so many refineries so close to the gulf coast. Although some extra pipelines would be required, it would have been smarter over the long run to build the refineries a hundred miles inland.