The largest refinery in the U.S. is temporarily shutting down following devastating local floods from Hurricane Harvey and the aftermath, adding to a raft of factors driving gasoline prices higher. The Saudi-owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, began what it called “a controlled shutdown” at 5 a.m. Wednesday.
The closure marks the latest in a series of outages at Texas Gulf Coast refineries that have led to a nationwide spike in gasoline prices. GasBuddy.com petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan estimated Wednesday that gas prices would increase 15 cents to 25 cents per gallon nationwide as a result of Harvey — up from an initial forecast of 5 to 15 cents. READ MORE
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