From Wikipedia:

"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is exclusively a crude petroleum reserve, not a stockpile of refined petroleum fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene, nor vegoil or biofuels. Although there are small-scale (2 million barrels) heating oil reserves in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey under the aegis of the Department of Energy (DOE), the Federal government maintains no gasoline reserves on anything like the scale of the SPR. Consequently, while the US enjoys some protection from disruptions in oil supplies, it would have to depend on other stockpiling members of the International Energy Agency for relief from any major disruption to refinery operations. Since no new refineries have been constructed in the US for thirty years, there is little reserve capacity."

from the last quoted article above

Wed Oct 1, 2008 9:00pm IST

reuters

Diesel is reported to be in short supply in the upper Midwest, as the important TEPPCO pipeline in that area is running well below capacity. Some reports state that terminals are running out of diesel supplies, and only getting more after a day or two.

My WAG is that gasoline production was counter-seasonally stepped up at the expense of diesel production at some refineries.

People are going to start heating again soon. Will that draw on distillate supplies as well?

Will we have trouble filling our heating oil tanks this winter?

The furnaces went on in my part of the country last night. The cool period is supposed to last into next week.

There goes Just in Time Shipping. Another Domino Falls.

Reverse Engineer

Guess I better keep yea old tank at 3/4's

Isn't a a bit over the board to defend your property?

LOL

I need to keep yea old fuel tank @ 3/4's


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edit: The battle tank is on back order... the website says that they have run into some shipping problems.

Gasoline has dropped like a ROCK around here. Down to $3.43, it was over $3.60 just a few days ago...

Someone i know mentioned that the price could go down as low as $3...

$3.07 gal here. Demand is UP!

We are so getting boned here! You guys always are so much cheaper then us. If you drive 20 minutes west of La Crosse, the price drops around $.30 ...

Consumption will rise if these prices continue, there is no doubt in my mind.

U.S. Department of Energy-Hurricane Ike Situation Report # 22

The DOE reports that all pipelines are back to normal, except the Centential - which runs from Texas to Illinois. [This report was issued before the Colonial was shut down last night due to an accident].

The upper midwest still has low diesel supplies, but the harvest season is ending soon.

New England will probably get attention soon, as heating oil supplies are probably below minimum operational levels. There is a emergency heating oil reserve in New England, which I predict will be tapped before long.

Too bad there are no strategic diesel or gasoline reserves.

On my way to work in Nashville, TN it's my first day of seeing no stations closed or bagged pumps.

On behalf of myself and the rest of the oil patch I would like to express my relief over the recent drop in oil prices. Hopefully now all this chatter about renewable resources and alternative energy sources will quiet down. When oil hit $147 we really began to sweat. Sure, the bump in cash flow was nice but oil is still more than 10% above prices 12 months ago. And no one producing wells drilled in the last few years had ever expected prices to hit $80 a year ago so we're still way above economic expectations.

With a little luck drilling activity will slow up some to a manageable rate. (these 12 hour days were starting to wear me down). Hopefully this will also reduce those horrible inflationary drilling costs that started to seriously impact the bottom line. We're also confident (based upon much historical precedence) that the Federal and state govt's will encourage the populace to utilize the reduced energy costs to jump start the economy with renewed consumption across the board. Personally, with only 10 years to retirement, I was hoping the boom would last till then. Given the acceleration towards PO that this price decrease will generate I'm now feeling more confident then ever in my financial future.