Have I asked this before?

Is there an ECONOMIST in the house?

Why is it that, when a major oil refinery has a problem, the price of oil rises?

My little bit of microeconomic education leads me to think that this is decidedly antithetical*. (* Okay, if that doesn't compute, use 'counter-intuitive', 'Irish', 'upside-down', or 'a$$-about'.)

You see, my brand of microeconomics says that if you can't use as much of something, but the supplier is still producing it, then there is more going around... so the price that people need to pay to get the stuff should drop.

Let me translate that into the particular case.
"... if the refineries can't use as much crude oil [because a refinery somewhere is out of commission for a while], but the crude oil producers are still producing oil, then there is more oil going around... so the price that the refiners need to pay to get the crude oil should drop."

But, what we see - regularly - is an oil refinery going belly-up and the price of crude 'shocking up' and the whole world market ratchetting up.

As I said, "Is there an ECONOMIST in the house?"
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Peter