CALGARY - Canadians shouldn't expect Hurricane Dean to push up gasoline prices despite the tropical storm's punch to Mexico's oil sector, an oil industry consultant said Wednesday.
"Hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf Coast or the Gulf Coast in general really have not in the past had very much impact on crude prices,'' said Michael Ervin of Calgary-based M.J. Ervin and Associates.
The storm took aim at Mexico on Wednesday and battered evacuated oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche in the heart of the country's energy industry.
Ervin said gas prices should not be affected because Dean isn't hitting areas that would impact refinery capacity.
The Bay of Campeche is home to more than 100 oil platforms, three major oil ports and the Cantarell oil field, Mexico's most productive.
Cantarell was shut down just ahead of the storm, reducing daily production by 2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
"Crude prices are global prices and the kind of disruption to crude oil production realized by hurricanes is pretty minimal,'' Ervin said, adding that sometimes it is speculators that push up futures prices.
"Hurricanes come through and some less experienced speculators in the markets might be pushing up futures prices,'' said Ervin.
Dean stormed into Mexico after killing 13 people in the Caribbean.
Dean's projected path is 645 kilometres south of Texas, where only heavy surf is expected.
