The havoc wrought by tropical storm Harvey began to spread well beyond the Houston area on Thursday as the damage to the US’s energy infrastructure sent the price of gasoline sharply higher and forced Washington to step in to prevent fuel shortages.

热带风暴哈维(Harvey)造成的重创周四开始蔓延到休斯敦地区以外，这场风暴对美国能源基础设施的破坏导致汽油价格大幅上涨，并迫使华盛顿方面介入以防范燃油短缺。

Almost a week after the storm first made landfall in Texas, almost a third of US oil refineries — many of which are clustered on the US Gulf Coast — have been affected by the storm, and refineries still in operation in the region are struggling to import crude because of outages at port facilities.

这场风暴在德州首次登陆近一周后，美国近三分之一的炼油厂(其中很多集中在美国墨西哥湾沿岸)受到此次风暴的影响，同时因为港口设施停摆，该地区仍在运转的炼油厂很难进口原油。

Gasoline futures were particularly rattled by Wednesday night’s announcement by Colonial Pipeline that it was shutting down the key artery carrying fuel from the Gulf coast refining hub to the East Coast, in a move that could drastically restrict petrol and diesel flows to some of the biggest cities in the US.

周三夜间，Colonial Pipeline宣布，该公司将关闭将燃油从墨西哥湾炼油枢纽输往东海岸的重要管道，此举可能严重限制美国一些最大城市的汽油和柴油供应。这让汽油期货受到的影响尤为严重。

Colonial said on Thursday it hoped to make “intermittent” deliveries from points on the line east of Lake Charles, Louisiana, but was unlikely to have the line fully operational from Texas before Sunday.

Colonial Pipeline周四表示，希望“间歇性”地从路易斯安那州莱克查尔斯(Lake Charles)以东的管道接入点输送燃油，但不太可能在周日之前从德州全面恢复输油。

On Thursday, US wholesale gasoline spiked 13.5 per cent to close at $2.14 a gallon, a two-year high and up by more than a third from levels before the storm struck, meaning motorists will probably face acute price increases at the pumps in the coming weeks.

周四，美国汽油批发价格飙升13.5%，收于每加仑2.14美元，为两年高点，较风暴袭击前的水平上涨逾三分之一，这意味着未来几周驾车者可能面临油价急剧上涨。