The White House has told US refiners to postpone all scheduled mintenance in a drive to maximise petrol and diesel production as the administration raised its oil price forecasts yesterday in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
A senior executive from a big refinery in Houston said: "The message from the government is: 'Run the refinery as high as you can and avoid all the non-priority maintenance in the next four or six weeks'."
Washington has also told refiners to stop producing ultra-clean diesel to increase petrol output.
A Louisiana refiner said: "The White House said: 'Forget about low-sulfur diesel. We need gasoline and diesel. We need you working 100 per cent'."
New regulations on producing ultra-clean diesel were due in January 2006, but are now likely to be postponed, refiners said.
The US energy department told refiners informally that they should boost production after petrol prices rose to record highs after storm damage to oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Its monthly forecast yesterday said it expected US crude oil prices to reach $70 (€56.38) a barrel in the fourth quarter and about $60 for the whole of next year. Before Katrina, the official forecast for 2006 was an average price of $56.70 a barrel, but yesterday's report estimated the average would be $63.50.
Oil prices on Nymex rose slightly to $66.50 a barrel by midday yesterday.
US refineries unhurt by the storm are running close to full capacity.
Postponing maintenance can be a costly and dangerous gamble. Some of the industry's worst accidents have been blamed on such delays. - (Financial Times Service)
