Higher gas prices may be legacy of Rita

HOUSTON – The millions of Texans who fled Houston and other Gulf Coast cities to avoid Hurricane Rita are likely to pay higher prices for gasoline
“We’re going higher in terms of retail prices,” at least in the short term, because of tight supplies, said analyst Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. “Rita was more than a nuisance, but short of a catastrophe.”

Pump prices, which are already 47 percent higher than a year ago at $2.75 per gallon, could once again climb above $3 a gallon nationwide, analysts said. Supply snags are most problematic for the Gulf Coast, but markets in the East and Midwest are also vulnerable.

Twenty refineries along the Gulf Coast remained closed on Saturday, including four that were badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina almost a month ago. They account for 19 percent of total fuel refining capacity nationwide.

AP