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.