Hurricane Gustav is headed for the Gulf and the Republican Convention is starts Monday - the same day it is expected to hit land, will the republicans have to delay the convention and what consequences would that bring? Also, I can't find this info anywhere written but I was watching Shepherd Smith when he said there were more hurricanes lined up, the whole way to India. Now what will the Republicans do if they have have to keep delaying, and better yet - how terrible will our economy get? If 25% of our oil comes from the Gulf, and say we get repeatedly hammered, do gas prices go up roughly 25%?
Offshore platforms in the Gulf are responsible for about 14 percent of U.S. natural gas production and a fifth of the nation's oil output. About two-thirds of the oil the U.S. uses every day is imported. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az_rvBCEzHwQ&refer=home
It could gain a good bit of size going over the warm waters of the Gulf. Some of the models show it heading directly for the most dense area of oil rigs. Oil will definitely jump Sunday night when futures begin to trade again, but a 25% jump won't happen. I know refiners (VLO, TSO, WNR) stock prices performed the best when Katrina came through. Some models: Oil rigs and paths of previous hurricanes: Possible more storms to come, Hanna is right off of Florida: If I lived down there I would be gone.
It looks like it will hit the St Charles area which is a main oil producing area. This could be worse than Katrina in terms of damage to oil production.
A weakened Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry Monday, avoiding a direct hit on flood-prone New Orleans and boosting hope that the city would avoid catastrophic flooding.
Insurers are estimating 10 billion in losses. The damage to oil infrastructure was between $1- $3 billion.