Following on this post from yesterday, the markets continued to react to more information that indicates that damage to Gulf of Mexico offshore production and drilling facilities from the recent hurricanes is going to reduce production and exploration from that key region for an extended period of time.
That information, combined with the slow process of restarting Gulf Coast refineries, is generating one of the more unusual political ironies that America has seen in some time. As a result of the restricted energy supplies from the Gulf region, the outspokenly pro-exploration and production Bush Administration is sounding eerily like the Carter Administration from the late 1970’s, promising a national energy-conservation campaign to give Americans tips on saving energy during the winter heating season.

Actually, markets are still trying to adjust to the news of the restricted supplies. Gasoline and heating-oil futures settled lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, but front-month crude oil contracts posted a 44 cent rise to $66.79 a barrel — its highest level in over a week — although forward month oil contracts were lower. After increasing almost 8% during Wednesday trading, October gasoline settled down about 4% to $2.2516 a gallon and October heating oil fell 1.64 cents to $2.1247 a gallon. November natural-gas futures continued their relentless increast as they rose 9.6 cents to $14.196 per million British thermal units.
The double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has not only damaged the Gulf’s production and drilling infrastructure, it has damaged the important service industry that provides key logistics support for the offshore exploration and production industry. Helicopters at this point are in such demand that they are nearly impossible to find and many Louisiana dock facilities that used to launch supply boats to the Gulf have been destroyed. Service companies are even having a difficult time finding enough employees to meet the demand for assessment and repair service. This lack fo workers, helicopters and equipment is hampering the damage assessment process with regard to offshore oil and natural-gas facilities, most of which remains shut down nearly a week after Hurricane Rita came ashore last Saturday morning. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for roughly one-quarter of U.S. oil and natural-gas production.
Even when existing production is restarted, the hurricanes have damaged so many drilling rigs that efforts to increase Gulf production of oil and natural gas will likely be severely hampered. Current assessments are that the two hurricanes either sank or seriously damaged 13 drilling rigs, which is 12% of the Gulf rig fleet. As a result, that will make drilling more expensive, adding yet another element to the upward pressure on energy prices.
Finally, although Houston area refineries are firing up operations, the seven refineries in the hard-hit Port Arthur and Lake Charles areas will probably take longer than initially thought because of problems in getting reliable power to those facilities. About 20% of U.S. refining capacity was shut down for at least some period of time by the hurricanes.