Many coastal refineries soaked and idle

Pump prices continued to rise as downgraded Tropical Storm Isaac drenched Louisiana, even though concern about gasoline supplies seemed to vanish Wednesday, The Houston Chronicle reports. Isaac hampered oil companies for a third straight day, however, keeping workers away from massive plants and knocking out power to one of the many Gulf Coast refineries that had been shut down. Ten Gulf Coast refineries with combined crude oil processing capacity of about 2.4 million barrels a day were offline or running at reduced rates as of Wednesday, according to the Oil Price Information Service. That includes about 10% of the nation’s gasoline production capacity, the service reported. Refiners were preparing to assess the storm’s effects on their operations. Damage and flooding could delay workers from returning to evacuated facilities and restarting them. Gasoline stockpiles were high, however, with about 68.9 million gallons in storage along the Gulf Coast, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is more than enough to make up for the estimated 900,000 barrels of daily gasoline production now offline, says Ben Brockwell, director of the Oil Price Information Service’s data, pricing and information service. Read the full story here for more details.