In response, the US government prepared Wednesday to open its emergency oil reserves for the first time in a year to keep supplies running to those refineries still operating.
The United States keeps 700 million barrels of oil stored in four underground salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts to cushion oil markets during supply disruptions.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was created during the 1970s oil shocks, was last used after Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, when five million barrels of crude oil were released.
"It's really getting critical in some situations," PFC Energy analyst Seth Kleinman said.
"Until refiners are up and running, and pipelines have power and get product up here, it's looking very precarious," he said.
The government said that Katrina, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, would have only a "modest" impact on the economy. But analysts were not so sure.
As gasoline prices jumped across the United States, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the White House decided late Tuesday to tap the reserve following a request from the oil industry.
"Last night I approved a company's request for loan from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I fully expect that the details of that loan will be released later today," Bodman told a press conference.
Industry analysts expected the oil to be shipped to refineries further west in Texas, which escaped unscathed from Katrina but are now running low on crude supplies because of production interruptions in the Gulf of Mexico region.
At least eight refineries have been shut down on the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi since Katrina roared ashore early Monday just east of New Orleans.
Many other refineries are struggling to cope with shortfalls of crude caused by the closure of pipelines from rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, where oil production has ground to a virtual halt, and of major ports.
Two of the Louisiana tanker terminals hit by the hurricane -- Port Fourchon and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port -- combined handle more than 20 percent of all the crude oil imported into the United States.
While additional supplies of oil will be helpful in keeping crude prices from reaching 80 dollars a barrel, the real supply constraints are with refined products made from crude, said Wachovia economist Jason Schenker.
"There is no strategic government reserve of natural gas or refined products, and right now the biggest concerns in the marketplace are for products," Schenker said.
"At the end of the day, it may not matter for gasoline and heating oil prices how much crude comes out of the SPR," he said.
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