peaknix

Katrina’s Harvest: A beached Oil rig on the beach of the absolutely devastated Dauphin Island off the coast of Alabama. This is a screenshot off of CNN 8-30-05

Was reading this CNN Money article “An ill wind for gas prices” about how we could be looking at $6.00 oil if the gulf coast experiences any sort of disruption to it’s refineries and offshore rigs.

Though slow-moving, weak tropical storms over the Gulf of Mexico can halt oil drilling, powerful hurricanes that hit land can knock out refineries. That’s because about 40% of U.S. refining capacity is located on the Gulf Coast, namely in oft-hit states like Texas and Louisiana. After Katrina and Rita, 30% of Gulf Coast refineries were shut down or operating with reductions.

Until Katrina and the image you see above, I didn’t realize that offshore oil rigs could be picked up by the storm(surge?) and dropped on the beach.