Gas prices at the pump – are you ready to spend $6 or more a gallon?

By David Goldman – CNNMoney.com staff writer – May 22, 2008 …

Traders say that even though you’re already paying for the hurricane season, the price could spike to $6 a gallon if catastrophe strikes …

Batten down the hatches … hurricane season starts officially on June 1st … it’s expected to be a rough one, threatening to upend refineries and disrupt pipelines in the southern United States.

And that could send gas prices, already nearly 20% above what they were last year, soaring even higher.

That’s what happened three years ago when the Gulf Coast was battered by two hurricanes – Katrina and Rita – in the span of a few weeks.

Peter Beutel, oil analyst at Cameron Hanover Beutel, said if a Katrina-like hurricane were to hit in July, gas prices could go as high as $5 or even $6.

Like any disruption to supply, when a hurricane takes out drilling platforms and refineries, supply and demand principles lead to a jump in crude oil gasoline prices.

The last huge gas spike caused by a hurricane happened in the late summer of 2005, when Katrina and Rita brought many Americans their first glimpse at $3 a gallon for regular gas.

Amazing – this is what I forecasted months ago, but people thought I was crazy