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Article snippet: HOUSTON — Ports along the Gulf of Mexico are closed to fuel barges. Part of the biggest pipeline between Texas and New York has stopped flowing. Refineries and gas stations are flooded. Drilling rigs in the biggest shale field in Texas are running low on diesel supplies. As a result, the fallout from Hurricane Harvey’s devastation is now spanning the country, forcing gasoline price increases and possible consumer shortages of fuel. Nationally, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline on Thursday morning jumped 5 cents from the day before, to $2.45, the highest price of the year, according to the AAA motor club. And contracts for September wholesale deliveries rose 25.5 cents a gallon, signaling the worst is yet to come. Experts said prices at the pump could easily rise an additional 30 cents a gallon. “This is going to be a substantial ouch for consumers,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Service. “Satan could not have drawn up a more horrible geographic scenario for knocking out Texas refining.” Because the storm hit all the major oil centers on the Texas coast — Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur — a third of the nation’s refining capacity could be constrained for weeks, he said. That accounts for the disruption to the giant Colonial Pipeline, which delivers 100 million gallons of gasoline, home heating oil, jet fuel and diesel daily along a path from Houston to New York Harbor. Its operations in T... Link to the full article to read more