By Tina Seeley
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Spot shortages of gasoline in the U.S. in the aftermath of hurricanes Gustav and Ike shouldn't last a month, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
The U.S. experienced gasoline shortages for about a month after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf of Mexico region in 2005, Bodman told reporters today in McLean, Virginia.
``I would think it would be a shorter time,'' to recover from Gustav and Ike, he said. Bodman said several refineries in Texas and Louisiana should resume operations by either this weekend or next week.
The storms shutdown about 20 percent of U.S. refining capacity. Five refineries in the region are still idled, the department said in a report posted yesterday.
Bodman also said there were no pending requests to release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The department has released almost 3.3 million barrels to refiners that faced supply disruptions because of the storms.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment