Hurricane Rita turns off gasoline production

Refineries shut down in advance of Hurricane Rita have removed about 2.2 million barrels per day of gasoline production from the U.S. market. Including refineries still shut down after Hurricane Katrina, the total production offline now totals nearly 5 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.
U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said yesterday that gasoline imports will be needed in the coming weeks to replace lost production.