Angry in the Great White North

From Yahoo

At least 20 oil rigs and platforms are missing in the Gulf of Mexico and a ruptured gas pipeline is on fire after Hurricane Katrina tore through the region, a US Coast Guard official said.

"We have confirmed at least 20 rigs or platforms missing, either sunk or adrift, and one confirmed fire where a rig was," Petty Officer Robert Reed of the Louisiana Coast Guard told AFP.

The impact is severe:

According to the latest tally Wednesday from the federal Minerals Management Service, a total of 561 platforms and rigs have been evacuated in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for a quarter of US oil production.

Over 91 percent of normal daily crude oil production in the Gulf -- 1.5 million barrels -- is now shut down, and more than 83 percent of natural gas production, the MMS said.

"It's really getting critical in some situations," PFC Energy analyst Seth Kleinman said.

"Until refiners are up and running, and pipelines have power and get product up here, it's looking very precarious," he said.

Crude oil will be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but it's the refined product, not the crude oil, that matters:

While additional supplies of oil will be helpful in keeping crude prices from reaching 80 dollars a barrel, the real supply constraints are with refined products made from crude, said Wachovia economist Jason Schenker.

"There is no strategic government reserve of natural gas or refined products, and right now the biggest concerns in the marketplace are for products," Schenker said.

"At the end of the day, it may not matter for gasoline and heating oil prices how much crude comes out of the SPR," he said.