Oil companies reported that the hurricane had caused minimal damage to coastal refineries.

Los Angeles city and county fire officials also said they had not received significant damage reports in residential or industrial areas, including the coastal refineries.

Nearly two-thirds of California's oil comes from out-of-state and is processed in coastal refineries.

The oil comes from rivers, coastal refineries and oil tankers.

The repairs to the 110,000 barrels-per-day capacity coastal refinery will take around seven days, the company said in a statement.

Experts said the storm could cause damage to some coastal refineries, leaving them shut for weeks. '

The coastal refineries must compete with the growing economies of Asia for shipments of oil.

Number three, it was impossible for /, anyone to obliterate the coastal refineries except with missiles.'

Energy companies are unlikely to have much information about the condition of offshore platforms and coastal refineries until Gustav has passed. '

Tropical storms and hurricanes can disrupt the operations of offshore oil platforms and coastal refineries.

Shell, in addition to its offshore facilities, was also shutting a number of its coastal refineries and chemical plants while putting others on standby.

Workers were evacuated from six oil rigs in the storm's path, and 23 coastal refineries stopped unloading oil as Cindy's approach made such activities dangerous.

MRPL runs a 194,000 barrels-per-day coastal refinery in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The Indian refiner, whose coastal refinery is configured to run Iranian crude, will discuss its annual crude import plan this week, sources said.

Oil companies shut their US offshore production facilities this week and have begun closing coastal refineries in Texas in preparation for Ike's arrival.

Oil and natural gas facilities should start up again in a day or two, while coastal refineries could take two to four days to resume production, depending on their size.

Crude oil markets nervously watched to see if Ike would swamp low-lying coastal refineries in its path that collectively process 20 percent of U.S. fuel supplies.

MRPL has been consistently widening its crude slate as it is expanding its southern India based coastal refinery to process 300,000 bpd.

But forecasters still expected it to grow into a hurricane before hitting land near the Mexican border and said it could threaten some coastal refineries later in the week.

Katrina and Rita devastated portions of the Gulf Coast, wrecked about 100 offshore rigs and flooded a handful of coastal refineries.

Those storms temporarily knocked out a quarter of U.S. crude and fuel production, toppled offshore platforms, flooded coastal refineries and sent energy prices to record highs.

Oil and natural-gas prices rose as Roxanne moved toward the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to shut down offshore platforms and coastal refineries for the second time this month.

Months ago, the country was fighting against fuel and power shortages, but it was now facing excess supply and inadequate consumption,' said an official with a coastal refinery. '

Largely spared by Hurricane Gustav, oil companies on Tuesday tallied the damage to their Gulf of Mexico installations, from offshore rigs and drilling to coastal refineries.

The fact that prices fell despite disruptions caused by Hurricane Ike to offshore production, import terminals, and coastal refineries, reflects the deep shift in the market’s sentiment in recent weeks.