The 1900 Galveston Storm was Sept 8-9.
Hurricane Betsy was Sept. 9, 1965
Most oil and gas production affected by Katrina could be online within a month Thursday, 6:10 p.m.
A little more than 60 percent of daily oil production and 40 percent of natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico remained off line Thursday, although officials believe that most production can bounce back within a month - a fairly quick recovery given the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The amount of oil and gas out of production, or what the industry calls shut in, is important because the Gulf supplies 29 percent of all domestic oil and 21 percent of gas. The disruption from last week's killer hurricane is largely responsible for the spurt in oil and gas prices in the last 10 to 12 days.
Still, the amount shut in on Thursday is far better than the day after the hurricane. On Aug. 30, 95 percent of oil production and 88 percent of gas production was shut in, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees offshore oil and gas production.
The assistant secretary for the MMS, Rebecca Watson, on Tuesday told the Senate Energy Committee that even though the hurricane churned through a core area of offshore operations, "early reports indicate that the vast majority of facilities could be ready to come back on line in days and weeks, rather than months."
Of the 4,000 production facilities on the outer continental shelf, 37 shallow water platforms were destroyed, she said. However, they only produced about 1 percent of total Gulf output.
Of greater concern are four large deepwater platforms that accounted for about 10 percent of the offshore Gulf production. They sustained extensive damage, which could take three to six months to repair. Some pipelines suffered damage that could take months to repair, while others have been inspected, tested, and have already commenced operations.
"Despite this damage, about 90 percent of Gulf oil production could return to the market in one month, if refineries, processing plants, pipelines and other onshore infrastructure are in operation to receive, prepare and transport it to the consumer, " said Watson.
Gasoline prices at the pump leaped as a result of the energy pinch. Nationwide, the price of regular unleaded was $3.216 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA, the automobile club that reports prices to the tenth of a cent. That's up 30 percent from $2.483 a month ago.
However, this area has caught a bit of a break on prices. Gasoline in the Baton Rouge area averaged $2.666 a gallon on Thursday, according to the AAA. New Orleans did not have enough gas stations reporting to make a meaningful average.
According the MMS report, 901,726 barrels of oil were not pumped from the Gulf on Thursday. Normally, 1.5 million barrels are produced.
Also, 4.02 billion cubic feet of natural gas were not produced. Normally, about 10 billion cubic feet are produced.
The cumulative shut-in production caused by Katrina beginning Aug. 26 amounts to 2.7 percent of yearly oil production in the Gulf and 2.1 percent of yearly gas production.