A spokesman for AAA says the automobile club expects gas prices to continue inching upward as repairs are made to a pipeline that ruptured in Alabama, leading to scattered gas shortages across the South.
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Meanwhile, gas prices are climbing as supplies are dwindling. He said he doesn’t want everyone to run out at once and start buying gas, because that will create a shortage.
But it’s a temporary disruption, fuel-supply experts tell us – the result of a pipeline leak in Alabama that spilled more than 250,000 gallons of gasoline and disrupted supplies while workers fix it. The leak, which spilled 6,000 barrels of gasoline into a detention pond, was detected September 9. The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating.
The pipeline runs from Houston to NY and carries gasoline to the eastern part of the United States.
Colonial, the largest US refined products pipeline system of about 2.6 million bpd, said on Monday it gathered gasoline from Gulf Coast refiners last week to transport the fuel on its distillate line to markets throughout the affected region.
The company also said it plans to complete a temporary pipeline by the end of the week to bypass the one under fix.
The leaking Colonial pipeline could be back in order within the week. That should allow gasoline deliveries to affected areas to resume by the end of the week.
In the meantime Colonial said in a press release Monday that they had been gathering gas from Gulf Coast refiners and then shipping it to markets throughout the southeast.
The executive director of the South Carolina Petroleum Council, Bonnie Loomis, says large sections of the rest of the state get gasoline brought into Charleston on tanker ships. Media outlets in those states have been reporting outages at gas stations.
Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed an order last week to temporarily waive hours of service restrictions for fuel vehicles, and another to prevent significant price increases at fuel stations. “In order to remedy this, I’ve issued an executive order reiterating the state law prohibiting price gouging”.
Motorists in the six states served by the Colonial pipeline have seen a spike in gasoline prices in the past week as a result of tightened supplies.
Average retail gasoline prices in Alabama have risen 7.3 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.01 per gallon Sunday, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 3,348 gas outlets in Alabama.
Still, GasBuddy.com’s live average of 704 gas stations in Hampton Roads shows that gas prices increased 6 cents from $1.98 Sunday to $2.04 by 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Changes in gas prices will be determined by how quickly Colonial can restore the flow.
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“Gasoline is such an absolute commodity these days”, he said.
