Tropical Storm Ingrid

Humberto shouldn't affect Cenla gas prices, officials say

Even with crude oil at an all-time high of nearly $80 a barrel and Hurricane Humberto temporarily knocking refineries offline, Central Louisiana drivers most likely won't be seeing a jump in prices at the pump.

Hurricanes seldom are accompanied by good news, but Humberto's timing coincided with market forces that were naturally driving gas prices down, Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association spokesman Larry Wall said Friday.

"Rising oil prices should be offset by a drop in demand that comes every fall," Wall said. "There is always less demand when summer ends, and we don't see it start to go back up again until the holidays."

Wall said federal regulations that ease up on the types of gasoline that can be sold after summer also factor into price reductions.

These forces working together mean drivers will see little, if any, impact from Humberto in gas prices, he said.

Unlike Hurricane Rita, which took a similar path as Humberto two years ago, Humberto caused no evacuations or shutdowns to drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, said Minerals Management Service's New Orleans office spokeswoman, Caryl Fagot.

With production uninterrupted and demand easing, industry officials said they don't expect gas prices in Louisiana or the rest of the nation to be rocked by the storm.

The American Automobile Association reported Friday that gas prices averaged $2.68 in Louisiana -- about the same as a month ago. Nationally, prices fell 0.7 cent overnight to an average of $2.801 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

The price of oil held steady near $80 a barrel Friday, buffeted as some traders sold to lock in profits and others bought on worries about Tropical Storm Ingrid building strength in the Atlantic.

Many traders are reassessing the market's direction after a nine-session rally that has driven prices to several new records.

Gasoline futures moderated as power was restored to two of the three Texas refineries shut down by Humberto, which was a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in southeastern Texas. Natural gas futures, meanwhile, rallied over Ingrid.

In recent days, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has said it will boost output, which should alleviate some of the supply concerns, and the International Energy Agency has cut its global demand forecasts.

On Friday morning, light, sweet crude for October delivery lost 27 cents to $79.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while October gasoline gained 0.61 cent to $2.0525 a gallon.

Tropical - Tropical Depression Sixteen (2008) – Introduction

Tropical Depression Sixteen was the sixteenth, and weakest, tropical cyclone of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Sixteen developed out of a strong tropical disturbance off the eastern coast of Nicaragua on October 13. The disturbance quickly developed into a tropical depression the next day while hugging the coastline. Due to the proximity to land, the depression failed to develop strong convection, significantly hindering intensification. Once off the northern coast of Honduras, the depression became disorganized, but managed to slightly intensify, reaching its peak intensity with winds of 30& mph (45& km/h) on the afternoon of October 15. The depression then relocated onshore and rapidly dissipated the next morning.

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