According to Zimm, who I mentioned
in the other thread the priorities were capital ships (battlehships, that Yamamoto wanted, and carriers, that Genda wanted) to forestall a coss-Pacific offensive by the USN, 'targets necessary to keep the strike aircraft and Japanese warships safe', i.e., airfields, and seaplane bases, and third, infrastructure, including 'shipyards, drydocks, the submarine base, supply depots, administrative buildings, barracks, and fuel storage'. Both quotes are from Zimm, p54/
Kimnmel had lost several AOs to the Atlantic Fleet when BatDiv 3 (
Idaho, New Mexico, Mississippi) and
Yorktown went to the Atlantic. He felt he needed 25 for an offensive with the fleet. He had 11, and of those, only four were capable of underway replenishment.
Not to Yamamoto. He thought the battleships were the key to the US cross-Pacific offensive. Genda prioritized the carriers, as I said. See the post referenced/linked above for an explanation.
In addition, not all carrier air groups are created equal. The four veteran carriers of the Kido Butai had the ships in Pearl Harbor on their target list.
Zuikaku and
Shokaku were so new, and their air groups felt to be 'very green' that they were given easier targets of airfields and aircraft in the air bases on Oahu. Bear in mind the IJN viewed the carrier and air group as a single weapon, and would not cross-deck squadrons the way the USN would (for example, part of
Saratoga's group sailing with
Yorktown to Midway).
I think in the odd circumstance there were a successful strike on the tank farms on Oahu, I think the USN could just do what the Japanese did at Truk: park a couple of those AOs incapable of underway replenishment in the harbor and use them as storage until the tank farms are repaired. The Japanese execution of this took valuable tankers out of the logistics pool when Japan needed them very badly. Given US industrial capacity, and the fact the US was self-sufficient in petroleum at the time, it think it would be something that would be manageable. Not easy, but possible. I think ships would likely be fueled as soon as possible to empty the tankers and get them back to sea at the earliest opportunity.
My thoughts,