The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Texas was $2.17 a gallon on Sunday morning, up only 2 cents from the beginning of the week, according to the AAA motor club, below the national average of $2.36 a gallon, also up 2 cents this week. The reason is a glut of oil and gasoline in storage, due to a frenzy of drilling in shale fields across the country, but especially in Texas, in recent years.

However, it may take days before the full impact of the storm is known. Roughly a million barrels a day of refining capacity has been shut down on the Gulf Coast, and nearly a quarter of Gulf offshore production has been shut in. The Corpus Christi shipping terminals responsible for importing and exporting oil and refined products are also closed, and if the ship channel between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass is badly damaged it could take weeks for production to resume. — CLIFFORD KRAUSS in Houston

The energy infrastructure bears watching.

Few, if any, places in the world have as much energy infrastructure in harm’s way as the Gulf of Mexico coast. Houston, Corpus Christi, Texas City and other cities have vast refineries and natural gas terminals, which make and store dangerous chemicals. The Gulf itself is crisscrossed by oil and natural gas pipelines that connect production platforms to pipelines onshore. The potential for environmental catastrophe, or at least a crippling blow to the national economy, is always there when a hurricane hits. But the region’s energy complex has dodged many bullets over the years.

The last major hurricane to hit Texas was Ike in 2008. It barreled into Galveston, Tex., only miles from Texas City and the Houston ship channel, and its high concentration of refineries and chemical plants. There was no disaster, but the ports of Freeport, Texas City, and Lake Charles, La. remained closed for days and flooding knocked out power to some refineries for more than a week.

More serious was the potential for trouble on the seas. Several drilling rigs were destroyed and underwater pipelines were damaged, but it appears that leaks were limited.

There have been no reports of significant leaks from Harvey so far, but damage assessments can take weeks. The brunt of the storm hit the ship channel between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass, where oil tankers come and go to Corpus Christi. Serious flooding could block commerce for days or weeks. — CLIFFORD KRAUSS in Houston