Hurricane Laura poses the biggest threat to US oil

The halt in US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is approaching its level during Hurricane Katrina of 2005, and coastal refiners scrambled Tuesday to cut operations ahead of a major hurricane approaching the coast of Texas and Louisiana.

Hurricane Laura will quickly gain strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become a major hurricane with winds of 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour) before hitting the US coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

On Monday, the storm halted 1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil production, or 82 percent of production from offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico, or nearly 90 percent of the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago.