LUMBERTON — Motorists who have some room in their gasoline tanks might consider topping it off now as all signs point to gasoline prices increasing dramatically thanks to Hurricane Harvey.
“It’s all about Harvey. That’s what they’re saying,” said Bucky Miller, of Planters Oil Company in Lumberton.
The storm has disrupted the refining and shipment of gasoline in the Texas Gulf Coast, he said. As a result the price of oil and gasoline is climbing.
“It has caused oil prices to go up 40 cents,” Miller said.
He was paying $2.10 per gallon for gasoline on Aug. 22. The price has increased almost daily since then.
“It was $2.40 last night,” Miller said Wednesday afternoon.
Higher prices for suppliers mean their customers must charge more at the pump — if they can get gasoline to sell.
“They are fighting run-outs,” Miller said of suppliers.
About a dozen refineries in the Texas Gulf Coast region have been shut down, he said. The Colonial Pipeline, which brings fuel from the Gulf Coast to inland states, is operating at a reduced capacity. That means there is less gasoline to be bought by suppliers to be shipped to local gas stations.
“I called Selma today and they have trucks stacked 25 deep waiting at the terminal,” Miller said.
Some stations already are running out of gas, he said. And the worst, in terms of supply and prices, may be yet to come.
“Keep your tanks topped off,” Miller said. “I’m telling you.”
Chris Oliver, of Oliver Oil Company in Lumberton, is urging calm even as Harvey has shut down 31 percent of United States’ gasoline production and petro prices have risen.
“Prices have been going up every day, double-digits, on us,” Oliver said.
But, he said the next two weeks will reveal how bad the gasoline supply gets and how high the prices rise, he said. If the rain stops in the next couple of days the oil companies can start getting wells and refineries in Texas back in operation and head off any dramatic gasoline shortage. The longer the period of heavy rainfall, the longer the shortage and related higher prices will last.
“If they’ve been down a week, it will take another week to get production back up,” Oliver said.
But the oil companies will work hard to get production back up as fast as they can, he said.
“Those boys will get the production back up,” Oliver said. “They’re not making any money with the wells not pumping.”
Oliver advises local motorists not to rush to gasoline stations and buy all they can. Doing so will only aggravate any shortage that might result.
“Just keep your tanks topped off,” he said.
The federal government is taking steps to alleviate any gasoline shortage, according to an Associated Press report.
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued emergency waivers allowing states from Maryland to Texas to ignore some clean-air requirements for gasoline to ensure an adequate fuel supply despite disruptions caused by Harvey.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says the waivers issued Wednesday will help ensure an adequate supply of fuel throughout the South, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.
In a letter to governors, Pruitt says the shutdown of nearly a dozen refineries and extreme weather conditions that have prevented fuel-barge movement in the Gulf Coast region justify the waiver. The designated states receive significant gasoline supplies from Gulf-area refineries.
The waivers are effective immediately and continue through Sept. 15 at least.
Affected states are North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C.
