Gas prices dodge Hurricane Ida catastrophe

Hurricane Ida’s impact on gas prices

FOX Business’ Grady Trimble on Hurricane Ida’s potential impact on oil.

Gasoline prices rose slightly Monday after Hurricane Ida shuttered refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. 

RBOB gasoline futures jumped 2.4 cents to $2.30 per gallon, pulling back from their overnight high of almost $2.37. 

"The biggest impact we're going to see is on gasoline and diesel prices, which are up just modestly this morning," said Andrew Lipow, president of the Houston-based consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates.

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He added that gasoline inventories are "adequate," but that delays in deliveries could cause "sporadic outages" in the Southeast.

While gasoline prices are moving higher in the futures market, that hasn’t yet translated to higher prices at the pump. Although some stations raise prices immediately, it takes about three or four days to be felt regionally.

Retail gasoline prices have seen a "slight increase" as a result of the storm, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. Gasoline prices ticked up to $3.151 per gallon nationally, up from $3.148 on Sunday.  

Flynn expects there will be damage to some refineries that could cause them to be "shut down for weeks" which will cause prices to "edge higher."

The Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel per day, or almost half the East Coast's supply, was shut down as a precautionary measure. 

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While the extent of any damage to the Colonial Pipeline is not yet known, an extended shutdown of more than four or five days would result in gasoline prices climbing by up to 10 cents per gallon, according to Lipow. 

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