Oil Production Halted By Katrina

Oil prices surged higher after Hurricane Katrina forced producers in the Gulf of Mexico to halt production and evacuate workers.

Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange climbed as high as $70.80 a barrel on Sunday night as the Category 5 hurricane moved into the nation’s most important oil-producing region, the New York Times reported.

The Gulf of Mexico produces nearly a quarter of all the oil consumed in the United States, the newspaper said.

The evacuations cut oil production in the Gulf of Mexico by more than 600,000 barrels a day. Large refining and oil-shipping installations in southern Louisiana were also shut down.

The storm is expected to be the biggest disruption to oil production in the gulf since Hurricane Ivan last year, which destroyed 7 platforms and damaged more than 100 underwater pipelines.