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HOUSTON — The punch of Hurricane Gustav appeared to fall softly Monday on the nation’s vast energy complex onward the U.S. Gulf Coast, and was overshadowed by growing solicitude over the state of the global economy.

Even as 110 mph winds raked refineries that line the coast and rushed past the deep-water rigs off the shores of Texas and Louisiana, the price for a barrel of oil plummeted by more than $4 a barrel some of a broad sell-off in European and Asian markets.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal estimated that roughly one fifth of the oil and natural-gas output that was shut before Gustav could be hinder part on line by the weekend, and several energy producers and refiners said their facilities appeared to be uninjured.

Still, the storm’s impact on production platforms, drilling rigs and other equipment will not credible be fully known for a day or so.

Assuming no damage, it typically takes two to four days to restart a refinery. It can take a sunlight or couple to get offshore-oil and natural-gas production going again.

In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out the region’s offshore infrastructure for several weeks.

Valero Energy said late Monday an initial assessment of its St. Charles, La., refinery, which turns 250,000 barrels a day of crude oil into gasoline and other fuels, erect “no significant structural damage,” have being it in the same state it was too by and by to repeat when the plant would restart.

Transocean, the world’s largest offshore-drilling contractor, said it appeared its three moored, semisubmersible rigs in the Gulf remained anchored in position for the time of the storm.

Transocean declared eight other rigs that used thrusters to move out of the storm’s passage also were whole and would be moving back to their drilling locations as soon as Monday evening.

In recent days, oil companies shut down virtually all oil and natural-gas prolongation in the Gulf, and the storm’s threat halted respecting 15 percent of the nation’s refining capacity based in the country.

Any serious damage to oil platforms and rigs or prolonged refining disruptions could make a thrust up energy prices. Eqecat, a risk-modeling resolute, projected Monday that Gustav could knock deficient in capacity for on the point 5 percent of both oil and natural-gas production for the next year.

However, one factor pleasing to mitigate the impact is that numerous analysts believe the appetite for fuel has been reduced by high prices and slower economic improvement.