http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4463

His sister Hanna waits in the wings.

This looks really bad.

I did inhale.

feeds right into the Republican meme that gustav is a 'political issue' to deal with, as compared to a force of Nature that's no more Republican than it is Democrat....

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

brews.

500,000 barrels a day imperiled.

Enough to push up a rate increase and therefore increasing the likelihood of a deeper and sooner second dip in this recession.

Time to pull out my "In the year of storms" and do some more writing.

The Republicans needed a plausible-sounding excuse for a piss poor convention.

Now they can play their weird little conflation game by first blaming God's bad weather, and then sending out their various info-minions to proclaim that God is so close to the Repub party that He sent this storm to the USA as a warning / a reminder of who wields the real power / a sign that voting for Obama makes Him angry - or whatever else they can come up with. And failing all of that, they just say that Repubs are so concerned and compassionate, that they had to stay away from the convention in order to help the victims, while all those bad old Democrats were busy having a big party in Denver.

Ya heard it here first.

_{Don't confuse my willingness to accommodate with your own need for me to obey.}

Reuters

FACTBOX-Gustav threatens U.S. Gulf oil, gas, commods

big snip

- IMPACTS OF GUSTAV ----

- The U.S. Minerals Management Service said Friday the threat of Gustav had shut 86,013 barrels per day of oil production (6.62 percent) and 136 million cubic feet per day of natural gas output (1.84 percent) in the Gulf. [ID:N29452397]

- Crude oil shot up $3 in early trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday on fears of storm-related output cuts before settling down 13 cents at $115.46 a barrel. [ID: N29464406] Products also rallied [ID:N29470713] [ID:N29429863]

- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was waiving the summer blend requirements to ease gasoline supply in coastal Louisiana. [ID:N29483551]

- Louisiana Offshore Oil Port said it was planning to stop offloading ships Saturday but would continue flowing oil from storage. [ID:N29440104]

- Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be used to cover storm-related supply disruptions, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Energy said. [WBT009629]

- Operator of Henry Hub, the south Louisiana pipeline junction that is a major pricing point for natural gas on NYMEX, said it may shut down on Sunday. [ID:N29424493]

- Shell Oil Co , the largest Gulf producer, said it was shutting about 72 percent of its 510,000 barrels per day oil equivalent production by Saturday as it withdraws 1,300 workers. [ID:N29410821]

- Oil majors BP Plc and Chevron Corp said they also were shutting production in the path of Gustav. [ID:N29432781] [ID:N29438616]

- Other companies, Exxon Mobil [ID:N29435273], Hess , Petrobras

- Motiva Enterprises by Friday had reduced staffing to skeleton levels at its 220,000 bpd refinery in Norco, Louisiana, but it kept operating normally. [ID:N29402694]

- Valero Energy Corp said it had made no decisions about its Gulf Coast refineries. [ID:N29456797]

- Few impacts were reported on other commodity prices or shipments due to the threat of Gustav. [ID:N29494607] [ID:N29521666] But cotton closed up Friday. [ID:N29574544]

..SNIP

Hanna looks to turn north into Georgia.

TD9N, however, is below the wind barrier in its forecast envelope, and may well be able to take the "Bahama Mama" track and into the gulf.

If named, as expected, in the next advisory, it will be "Ike."