Hurricane Harvey, expected to make landfall this weekend over southeast Texas, could cause gas prices to surge due to the oil and natural gas infrastructure in the region, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 20% of U.S. crude oil production. Texas accounts for about a quarter of U.S. natural gas production. Some refineries are expected to shut down temporarily and many oil and natural gas operators have already evacuated.
An increase of 5 to 15 cents per gallon is most likely but could increase by as much as 25 cents, Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza told the AP.
Flashback: Take it from Gustav, Ike, and Isaac — they on average shut down more than one million barrels per day of crude oil production and more than 3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production, as well as pipeline and refining capacity.
Why it matters: Hurricane Harvey is expected to wallop the Texas Coast, lingering through the weekend and bringing heavy rains and catastrophic flooding. Current forecasts present a possibility of the storm returning to the Gulf and then heading to Houston — the heart of America's petrochemical industry.
Tesla survives a months-long Wall Street Journal investigation, yielding this front-pager, "Tesla's Push to Build a Self-Driving Car Sparked Dissent Among Its Engineers: Elon Musk's ambitious goals for Autopilot technology have prompted safety warnings and resignations":
"Behind the scenes, the Autopilot team has clashed over deadlines and design and marketing decisions ... In recent months, the team has lost at least 10 engineers and four top managers."
"A Tesla spokeswoman attributed the turnover in the Autopilot group — which has more than 100 people developing hardware and software — to fierce competition for talent ... Tesla has hired more than 35 people to join its Autopilot group so far this year, and brought on more than 50 in 2016."
"In an email, Mr. Musk said he was unhappy with previous Journal articles on the company. 'While it is possible that this article could be an exception, that is extremely unlikely, which is why I declined to comment.'"
