U.S. pump prices surge in Ike's wake

"We're going to be coughing and wheezing in terms of supply for a couple weeks or so," Kloza said. "A lot of days of [fuel] production were lost."

Even so, he said, "by Wednesday or Thursday, it's not going to be a big story."

During electronic trading in oil futures, which opened earlier than normal Sunday, traders' attention appeared to be diverted by the spreading meltdown in the financial world, where investment bank Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. teetered on the edge of bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to a buyout. The cost of oil for October delivery fell as low as $98.46 a barrel, but by late Sunday it had rebounded to $99.61. On Friday, oil briefly traded below $100 for the first time in more than five months but closed at $101.18.

In Texas, 14 refineries remained closed Sunday, representing about 20% of the nation's oil-processing capacity. But a growing number of refiners were reporting that their plants sustained little or no damage from the hurricane.

Pipeline operations, also shut down as a precaution, were restarting Sunday. But with refineries still down, fuel deliveries to the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest were slowed.

Nearly all Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas production remained shuttered Sunday, the government reported.

The Energy Department said it would deliver 200,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ConocoPhillips' Wood River, Ill., refinery in exchange for oil at a later date. After Gustav, the agency provided oil from the reserve to Placid Refining Co.'s refinery in Port Allen, La., and to refineries owned by Marathon Oil Corp.

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elizabeth.douglass @latimes.com