Posted on 05/28/2004 8:45:58 AM PDT by Dog Gone
NEW YORK - Roughly 600 Shell and Texaco gasoline stations in parts of Florida and Louisiana temporarily halted their sales after customers complained the gasoline damaged their fuel gauge sensors, Shell Oil said today.
"We've asked our Shell and affiliated Texaco branded stations that were affected to stop selling gasoline due to elevated levels of sulfur in the fuel," said a Shell spokeswoman.
Gasoline with excess sulfur can damage fuel gauges, leaving drivers vulnerable to running out of gas without warning, she said.
This could prove inconvenient for motorists planning to get away for the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend -- typically the kick off for the peak summer driving season in the United States, the world's biggest consumer of motor fuel.
The problem caused the closure of 140 gas stations in New Orleans, Louisiana, amounting to 40 percent of the city's stations, and 450 stations in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa and Sarasota in Florida, adding up to five percent of the stations in the Sunshine State.
The fuel was produced from Shell's joint venture Motiva LLC refinery in Norco, Louisiana, the spokeswoman said. She added that the refinery continued to operate during an investigation into the cause of the high sulfur levels.
The gasoline was sold from the company's Kenner, Louisiana, fuel terminal, where the stored gasoline has since been treated with an additive to lower the sulfur content.
The spokeswoman added that the gasoline at the affected retail stations would be returned and treated to remove the excess sulfur.
Shell Oil is a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group .
Shell has had a string of bad news regarding its worldwide reserves of oil, and the scandal has sent Shell's stock plunging. Now they are out of a regional retail gasoline market on a holiday weekend, plus they're going to have to pay a bunch of auto repairs.
Now, I am not one to don the tin-foil beanie, but this is happening at the very worst time in terms of gasoline prices. Prices in areas serviced by this refinery are going to go through the overhead, maybe up to $3.00 a gallon when you add taxes. $3.00 on a gas station sign is going to have political ramifications.
Got a shell station 500 yards from here on US 1 in Juno Beach that has this problem. No gas.
You have to think there will be shortages of gasoline in New Orleans. Did you catch the part that 40% of the city's stations are shut down?
You can bet that this alone, even if it really did not influence supply/demand, will be used as the scape goat for the oil industry to raise gas prices another 25-30 percent by the middle of next week.
Sulfur in the fuel will also damage catalytic converters and Exhaust Gas Oxygen sensors.
Bad business, but customers probably won't know it until next time they go for an emissions test.
My fuel gauge sensor started acting bad several months ago.
After the gas in the tank got below half full, the gauge
shows empty.
I buy my gas at an Race Trac station. Don't know where the
gas comes from, but either a Houston or Corpus Christi refinery.
It may not have been the fuel that caused your problem. When gas is bad, it affects hundreds and thousands of cars, and the common source is identified pretty quickly.
I'm in New Orleans right now. I topped my tank off my tank on 5-22 with 28 gallons of unleaded at the Bullard Shell station. My needle up till 5 minutes ago was showing a half a tank of gas with 180 miles on the odometer. Now it's showing 1/4 of a tank.
At least it's a work truck :-/
We had to replace the fuel pump on my husband's truck two weeks ago, then on Tuesday, the one in my car. Odd coincidence? Hmmm....
Uh-oh. I hope you kept your gas receipt.
My work truck is 3 years old. With the exception of 3 or 4 times the receipt machine was broken and once when someone else borrowed it I have every receipt for every drop of gas put in this vehicle.
I get it at Race Trac too. My gas gauge has never worked all that well, but I don't think it's any worse right now.
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