Posted on 08/31/2005 1:34:35 PM PDT by Gardener
BALTIMORE (August 31, 2005) — Emergency managers up the east coast and elsewhere are reporting serious gas shortages.
"We may be facing a major fuel supply situation," reported a county-level emergency manager in South Carolina. "We in this county are cutting all non-essential services such as garbage pickup. It is a developing situation."
Gas stations in upstate South Carolina reported they were running out of gas. "The state is telling us the pipeline that services the northeast has been disrupted at the supply point in Louisiana, and that it will take a week and half for it to reach us," he said. "A lot of gas stations are out and closed in this area."
In North Carolina, a gas station on U.S. 74 reported it had only premium gas left and was selling it for $2.99. Station managers say they are unable to get gas from their suppliers. A nearby competitor station reported it had to close altogether because it was out of all fuel.
In Michigan, gas prices were as high as $3.92 for unleaded regular in Garden City, just one of many stations with high prices in the Detroit metro area. Forty percent of Michigan’s gas comes from the Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Katrina shut down a number of oil platforms, refineries and pipelines.
I've just been notified that our Kroger gas station closed. I was just at the store a few hour ago and it was open. What's happening?
"No gas coming in, no gas going out."
Something doesn't add up, here. Capacity has only been down since Sunday, essentially three days ago, and we're "out?"
Referencing Colonial Pipeline: about eighty million gallons of refined petroleum products run through the main pipelines daily. The products run the gamut of military grade jet fuels, aviation kerosene, gasolines, diesel fuels and heating oils. Cities served by the mainline include Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Greensboro, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City. Secondary lines serve Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond and Norfolk.
Atlanta is served primarily by Colonial Pipeline's delivery facility in Doraville. Georgia. Through a secondary pipe connected to the mainline, Colonial also serves jet fuel farms at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport. Colonial's mainline features both a forty inch and a thirty-six inch diameter pipeline running side by side through the north Atlanta suburbs.
According to a document from Colonial dated January 2000, the two main lines have a discharge capacity of 2,210,000 barrels per day. In the petroleum business, the standard barrel, usually of crude oil, is 42 gallons per barrel. Both parallel main lines, running from Pasadena, Texas to Linden, New Jersey, cover a little over 1,050 miles.
We must be in a delicate supply line in fact, not just theory.
Fox just had >$5.00 gas per gallon.
At any given time, the USA has only enough refined product on hand to run the country approximately one week. This according to my boss..an industry insider for over 40 years..
I just called Kroger. They are out of gas. Out of it in a nearby town too. Not much left in our town.
I think it's because of people topping off vs. a real supply problem, but don't know that for fact.
I was sitting in line at the gas station here in Greenville, SC and the gas went up from 2.40 to 2.88 by the time I got to the pump. 48 cents in a matter of minutes.
I suspect you might be right. The thing that concerns me is that I am not seeing any queues for gas in VA, but stations still seem to be running out. Of course this is just anecdotal.
Virginia DOT has several of those. Apparently the vehicle detectors embedded in the pavement have failed due to repaving operations. Instead of fixing them, they just put the light on pre-timed mode.
One of them has been that way for almost a year. The excuse as to why it hasn't been fixed is that they haven't gotten a low enough bid for fixing it. Wonder how the dollar amount of gasoline that has been wasted by that traffic light over a year compares to how much the bids are to fix it?
This is Baltimore... you can hardly notice the garbage pick up by either smell or sight - nothing substantial changes.
CB
Yup. Here in Atlanta I paid $2.79 this morning to top off my tank. I left work and drove by the same station at 5pm and the price was $3.19.
Reports from the suburbs are over $5/gal.
This is gonna be interesting.
"At any given time, the USA has only enough refined product on hand to run the country approximately one week."
From what I have been able to glean, there are several million barrels of various fuels sitting in terminals or "tank farms" from Doraville, GA to Charlotte, NC, Greensboro, NC, and on up to terminus in NJ.
Somebody's decided to clamp down on distribution from these terminals, 'cause they ain't empty, in my opinion.
Add to that a release from the strategic reserves, which was committed to by Bush today, I believe, and this is beginning to look artificial.
Just heard all gas pumps in NC will shut down at 7pm...
Just heard all gas pumps in NC will shut down at 7pm...
"Just heard all gas pumps in NC will shut down at 7pm..."
From whom... source? If this is so, you couldn't orchestrate a buying panic any better if you tried.
It is beginning to look like the adults are taking charge in the emergency.
No (I couldn't find any) 87 or 89 in NW Nassau County (Long Island) and 93 is @ $3.30 and up.
The US burns 20 million barrels a day. The world 84 million. Several million won't last long.
"If everyone were aware of what is going on they would be checking their Y2K stash right about now. A lot of pipelines originate at NO."
Mine is still there. I dont think I will need it but insurance is peace of mind. When it expires I will get abother stash.
Gas is about 2.57-2.70 in Fort Worth. The lines look normal.
It went up about a dime so far, thats not so unusual lately.
It seems to me if everyone filled their tanks in a panic it wouldnt matter because they were going to use it soon anyway and will need gas later than normal.
For the month they would end up burning the same number of gallons as usual.
Provided there is no disruption in flow as there appears to be in this case due to Katrina.
I am looking out my office window at a Texaco station in Greensboro, NC right now... no lines whatsoever. There are even pumps with no car at them. Unless they've already declared that they are "out," and I haven't heard any indication on local news radio that this could possibly be the case, then I'm thinking BS on the 7 PM closing of all gas stations in NC thing.
I
"Texas -
Refineries: Distillation capacity of 4,627,611 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD) (2005) "
Texas won this contest and 2nd place was less that half our 4.6 billion. I love this state!
Im very glad Katrina missed Houston.
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