BROWNSVILLE — The nation’s largest refinery has joined the list of those shut down due to flooding and damage from Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.
But that does not change predictions from one petroleum analyst about how high gasoline prices will go.
Allison Mac, petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, said 23 percent of U.S. refining capacity was offline as of midday yesterday. She noted, however, that the most recent shutdowns did not alter the company’s predictions from earlier in the week of a 20- to 35-cent per-gallon increase, with Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and the Carolinas likely to be most affected due to their reliance on Gulf Coast refineries.
Motiva announced early yesterday that it had begun a controlled shutdown of its Port Arthur refinery after massive rains hit the area overnight. The county’s second largest refinery, Exxon’s facility in Baytown, was shuttered Sunday.
Gas shortages are not in the picture, Mac said, despite reports to the contrary that prompted a run on Rio Grande Valley gas stations on Monday. As of yesterday afternoon, no major price spikes were apparent.
“Something to keep in mind is that all of these other refineries across the nation, they have increased their production levels to make up for what’s going on in Texas,” Mac said.
“In the Midwest, refineries are at 100-percent production levels. They are really churning out gasoline in the Midwest.”
Also, the United States has a gasoline reserve of just under 230 million gallons that can be tapped if necessary.
Mac said “shortage” is the wrong word to use to describe the current situation, when what’s really happening is a squeeze on supply, which she characterized as “slightly below normal.”
The only shortages taking place are when misinformed motorists make a run on gas stations and buy all the gas, Mac said.
“That’s what we don’t want to happen, because once that does happen that’s when prices are really going to shoot up, when people are hoarding gasoline in their garages,” she said.
