The latest hit list potentially reduces U.S. fuel-making capacity to the lowest since 2008, following Hurricane Ike. Motiva Enterprises LLC’s Port Arthur facility in Texas, the biggest U.S. refinery, is shutting because of severe flooding, said a person with knowledge of the operations. Total SA’s refinery in Port Arthur is out with a power loss, a person familiar with that plant said. Those plants are located less than 50 mi (80 km) from the tropical storm’s 4 a.m. Wednesday landfall just west of Cameron, Louisiana.
The two refineries join more than a dozen others with a combined ability to produce more than 4 MMbpd, or about 23% of U.S. capacity, that are at least partially offline. Gasoline futures are at the highest in two years, and the fuel’s premium to crude is at a 16-month high.