Nine Texas oil refineries still shut after Ike: DOE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine oil refineries in Texas with 2.268 million barrels per day in refining capacity were still shut as of Monday in the wake of Hurricane Ike, the Energy Department said.

The shut facilities account for about 13 percent of total U.S. refining capacity and represent almost 800,000 bpd in lost gasoline production and about 500,000 bpd in distillate fuel output, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Since refineries first shut down for Hurricane Gustav three weeks ago, over 41 million barrels of petroleum products have not been produced, including over 19 million barrels of gasoline and 13 million barrels of distillate fuel, the EIA said.

Separately, the Energy Department said eight natural gas processing plants along the Gulf Coast with a capacity of 5.08 billion cubic feet of gas a day remained shut due to both Hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

Twenty-two gas plants with a total capacity of 8.73 billion cubic feet a day were operating at normal or reduced levels, and eight gas plants with 3.65 billion cubic feet a day in capacity can restart once electricity and gas flows resume, the department said.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Gene Ramos)