The nation’s biggest oil refinery shut down Wednesday morning as Tropical Storm Harvey continued to hammer the core of the U.S. industry that turns crude oil into gasoline. The storm’s record rainfall has already reduced U.S. oil production capacity by nearly a fifth, a figure that analysts said could still rise. Under normal conditions, the facility processes more than 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The plant on the Houston Ship Channel employs about 7,000 people and can process up to 584,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Federal officials took similar action in 2008, when gasoline shortages rippled across the southeastern U.S. after hurricanes Gustav and Ike reduced gulf oil production.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 30, 2017 21:37 UTC