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Posts : 409 Join date : 2011-06-10
| Subject: Rita damaged wells Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:22 pm | |
| The level of activity of the season had far-reaching economic consequences. Because of the vulnerability of both oil extracting and refining capacity in the Gulf of Mexico, storms led to speculative spikes in the price of crude oil. The damage to refinery capacity in the United States caused gasoline to soar to record prices (even adjusted for inflation). Governments in Europe and the United States tapped strategic reserves of gasoline and petroleum, and shortages were reported in the days after Katrina in areas heavily dependent on the Gulf of Mexico for refined gasoline. Even weeks after the storm, prices remained elevated as the shortage in production remained over one million barrels per day.[24] Rita damaged wells in the western Gulf of Mexico which were primarily exploratory, leading to concerns that future production would be damped for some time to come. Additionally, as the storm churned in the Gulf, forecasters predicted that it would strike Houston, Texas, the location of many major oil refineries that survived Katrina, leading to additional spikes in oil prices before the predictions changed. In Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue declared "snow days" on September 26 and September 27, 2005, at all Georgia public schools to conserve fuel for school buses in anticipation of Rita's impact. However, as the storm veered away from Houston shortly before landfall, damage to refining capacity was not as great as feared.[31] Air Conditioniphon5 | |
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