[max_rpf]

“Based on what we have right now, it appears that drilling contractors and rig owners took a big hit from Rita,” said Tom Marsh of ODS-Petrodata. “The path Katrina took was through the mature areas of the US Gulf where there are mainly oil [production] platforms. Rita came to the west where there is a lot of [exploratory] rig activity.”

Many of those guys have some form of insurance, anyone operating these things in the gulf without it would be insane. Also note that this mostly affects exploratory activity, and while theoretically it should cut into the futures market, it likely won't as it doesn't seem to have hit current production. The important thing right now to the energy market is supply and refinery capacity which the storm seems to have mostly spared.

[VRWCTexan]

Respectfully disagree - I personally know of at least one active production facility 80,000 BPD that has been lost - there may be others as well.

[thackney]

Many of those guys have some form of insurance, anyone operating these things in the gulf without it would be insane.

Most large companies like Shell, ConocoPhillips etc are self-insured. I worked with a couple different ones after major damage. Enron, however, was not self-insured.