Ike-hit refineries planning revival

Texas refiners and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas producers may need two weeks to restore normal operations after Hurricane Ike swept through the region.

Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's biggest oil company, said its Beaumont, Texas, refinery took the "most serious hit" of its plants, from a wall of water pushed ashore by Ike. Chevron Corp, said "several" platforms in the Gulf had been toppled and Royal Dutch Shell Plc restarted "some production" in the region.

"You are looking at 10 to 14 days for most of the refineries" in the Houston and Texas City areas, Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates LLC, said in a telephone interview. "Power and people are the major stumbling blocks for refineries to return."