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Gas Outage at Some Local Pumps

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

April 20, 2006 -- As if soaring gas prices weren't bad enough, now a number of gas stations around the area are socking it to motorists in a different way. They're out of gas, even the most expensive kind.

We are seeing a growing number of spot shortages throughout the Delaware Valley including a Lukoil station on City Avenue.

There is good news and bad news about this mess. The good news is that the spot shortages of gasoline that we are seeing are only temporary. The bad news is, we could be seeing them through late next week and perhaps again in the weeks ahead as more refineries convert their terminals to the cleaner burning fuel with ethanol. That said, with motorists already raising cane about sky-rocketing gas prices, there are serious questions being raised about why this conversion could not have been carried out in a less disruptive way. Cindy Checkowski/Chalfont, PA. "I think it's crazy, I think enough's enough! You know the prices are going up, there's no gas. It's getting to be a little bit too much." Cindy Checkowski was one of a number of motorists driving around in Montgomery Township looking for gas. A number of stations were either closed or had white bags over the pump handles indicating they were out of gas. Ketan Dunak/Gas Station Manager: "The suppliers, basically they are saying that they don't have enough gas." Michelle Wade/Chalfont,PA: "He said, 'Didn't you know that you can't get gas here cause there's bags on them?' I said, 'No, I didn't know!'. He said, 'We're out of Gas.'" We found motorists going round and around to various stations looking for gasoline and finding it hard to find. "How long have you been looking for gas now?" Dan Ganther/Chalfont, PA: "Oh, about an hour I guess." For the record, the Gasoline Retailers Association says there is not a gasoline shortage in the Delaware Valley. Ross DiBono/Pa. Gas Retails Assoc.: "I just need to tell everybody, please don't panic!" The problem is, roughly 40 percent of the refineries in the area are re-tooling their tanker terminals to dispense gasoline with the new cleaner burning additive ethanol. They have to do so by June first.

Large numbers of gasoline tanker trucks in Paulsboro, New Jersey are sitting idle as they wait their turn to load up at the limited number of terminals that are open.

The best way to explain it is this: Imagine a gas station where all of the pumps are closed for repairs except for maybe one or two. That's basically what is happening at refineries and that's what's causing the delays. Dibono: "See, normally 8 trucks load up at the same time just like you said. Now it may be two causing a back-up." We also found spot shortages earlier Thursday in Wilmington. And the problem is not just in our area. Drivers in Virginia are also finding gas stations out of gas for the same reasons. Many wonder why refineries could not have better coordinated the conversion effort. The Retailers Association in Pennsylvania says they understand customers are already upset over skyrocketing prices and now this, but they urged customers to be patient. DiBono: "Prices with that they are now, people get a little edgy when prices go up. The last thing we need is panic buying." With roughly 40% of refineries in the area are currently going through the changeover, you still have to be concerned about other potential shortages when the other refineries decide to change over as well. They all have to convert to the ethanol based gasoline by June 1st.

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