Oil industry bracing for the storms

With weather forecasters expecting an ``above-average'' hurricane season, government regulators and major players in the energy sector hope errors made last year during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita won't be repeated.

Mistakes and mechanical failures coupled with last year's unprecedented back-to-back severe storms disrupted U.S. oil production and gasoline distribution and sent global oil prices soaring past $70 a barrel and gasoline above $3 a gallon. Natural gas prices also doubled.

In the suburbs of Houston, the nation's energy capital, oil producers, refiners and pipeline operators report that Katrina and Rita punched holes in what they had thought were water-tight emergency plans. Energy companies couldn't communicate with government responders or even internally.

from the San Jose Mercury News