Gasoline prices continued to creep higher.......>

OIL: Gasoline prices continued to creep higher. The AAA National Fuel Gauge put

the cost of regular unleaded gasoline at $2.449% per gallon Thursday, versus

$2.404 Wednesday, $2.348 a week ago, $2.316 a month ago and $2.223 a year ago.

Average gas prices are up 4.3% on the week. In a statement Thursday, the Port of

Corpus Christi said, "Hurricane Harvey has significantly impacted the entire

Texas gulf coast with the petroleum refining centers of Corpus Christi, Houston,

Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Lake Charles Louisiana either completely shutdown or

significantly scaled back operations." "It is estimated only 25% of the refining

capacity in the region is operational," the Port said. Initial estimates of the

damage from Hurricane Harvey put the storm in the top five of most damaging

hurricanes in terms of economic cost. American Shipper's daily Thursday quoted

global risk modeling and analytics firm Risk Management Solutions as saying

their model estimates that the economic loss "could be as high as $70-$90

billion in total from wind, storm surge and inland flood.

- "Wikipedia puts the damage from Katrina (in 2005) at $108 billion and Sandy

(in 2012) at $75 billion.