Winter Storm Shuts Down Texas Oil Wells, Refineries

(Undated) — The winter storm that’s plunging hundreds of U.S. cities into a deep freeze is shutting down much of the oil patch.

Three oil refineries in Port Arthur, Texas, including the nation’s biggest, have had to stop processing the more than one million barrels a day they usually turn out. The story’s the same for refineries in Beaumont, Corpus Christi, and Baytown, as well as in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Texas’ energy regulator said Monday that producers in the Permian Basin and the Panhandle have been crippled by “unprecedented freezing conditions.”

The winter storm is also resulting in higher gasoline prices. Industry website GasBuddy-dot-com says the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded reached $2.54 on Wednesday. Industry experts say prices could rise 10 to 20 cents over the next two-weeks, raising the possibility of $3 a-gallon for the first time since 2014.

GasBuddy says nearly a dozen Texas refineries are at least partly shut down by the weather, and it may take weeks to get them back online.