North American Fuel Shortage Reports

[DantesPeak]

Filled up at a Shell station just north of Denver yesterday and every diesel pump had a yellow out of service bag over the pump. Three of the premium pumps were also “out of service”
In another post I mentioned that I hadn't seen any shortages. Well, now I see them.

Shortage in gas supply may cause prices in metro area to climb Last updated: 4/27/2007 9:44:14 PM:
DENVER - In and around the metro area, plastic bags can be found wrapped around gas pumps at several stations.
Analysts say problems at oil refineries in Texas and Oklahoma, which feed Colorado pumps, are causing supplies to go down and of course causing prices to shoot up.

"It's been a strange year for outages and problems at the refineries. It's classic supply and demand. That's what we're seeing. The refineries aren't sending what they used to in Denver and it's coming at a time when more drivers are demanding gas," said Eric Escudero of AAA Colorado.

9 News

[Eli]

Denver without gas is toast.

The city is a sprawling mess, people have to drive long distances to get anywhere. Those of you from Europe would have a real hard time picturing the city.

Denver will be great test case for gas shortages.

[Eli]

I was reading another news story about the gas problems in Co. It seems that most of the problems are with Valero.

That I find very interesting. Valero more than any other refiners has focused on processing heavy sour crude. They saw an opening in the market because most of the other major refiners are focused on processing the better grades of oil.

Remember too that KSA only has excess capacity in the crappier grades of oil that are harder to process.

These refinery problems and maintenance issues are only going to get worse has time progresses. You never save the good stuff for last as Simmons is fond of saying.

[Troyboy1208]

Two chevron stations are out of fuel like every other week here in North Orlando. Owners say that they cant get the fuel because delivery schedules have been changed due to unavailability. I say they need a new distributer.

[MacG]

Between $6 and $7 per Gallon here in Europe, and we seem to be doing fine. Smaller cars and less commuting by car does miracles you know. Somewhere around $10 per gallon though, and we will definitely start to suffer. Not to mention what "out of service" would do to us... Sticks and stones...

[Eli]

Yeah, well 4 dollars a gallon in the US will force a lot of people out of their cars and make them take the train to work.

Too bad we don't have any trains.

[steam_cannon]

Too bad we don't have any trains.

I miss Ukraine...

[vision-master]

Lifted from another thread.

Over the past week, I have noticed two or more out-of-gas pumps at every gas station I have hit here in Charlottesville, Virginia(which is quite a bit, as I am currently rotating my supply).
Anyone else noticing an increase in "sorry out of gas" bags over pump nozzles? Where?

Here along the banks of the Chesapeake, I too have noticed more “out gas of signs”, particularly on unleaded pumps. As I mentioned in a previous post, the further one is from the source, the greater the likely hood of shortages. In Virginia we are very near the end of the pipeline. I expect to see more of this as the stock numbers decline.

[oilluber]

Dear US and Canadian PO.com viewers:
We have had some reports come in today on fuel shortages starting to show up in the US. Since we have a global network of observers literally at our fingertips, please use this thread to report any shortages of fuel in your area. We did this with great success awhile back for the Europeans. First person observations of conditions in your area are the best. Any news stories in your local area would also be good (follow guidelines for reporting news from outside sources). Please Help keep the PO.com community informed about this important topic.

the remedy for peak oil is to load up on the oil stocks, esp the canadian oil stocks like SU. So I don't care if it goes up, I'll still buy oil from the station that I bought some stocks in.

[pup55]

KCCI Website
Posted by Seldom_seen in the open forum:

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A shortage in the supply of unleaded gasoline has caused certain terminals in Iowa to run out of gas Tuesday, according to Bruce Heine of Magellan Midstream Partne
He said terminals in Iowa City and Fort Dodge had no unleaded gas Tuesday. Magellan has an 8,500-mile refined petroleum pipeline system, including 47 terminals, eight in Iowa.

Houston Chronicle

When there's not as much product refined and consumption rates are historically high, outages are going to pop up especially in the outer reaches of the pipeline systems," said Randy Lusby of Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service

We're in big trouble," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. He noted that inventories stand at 194.2 million barrels _ or slightly above the levels reported in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 _ and he predicted that that the average prices this summer will surpass the 2005 record of $3.06 a gallon.

[Toploader]

If this is the beginning of the end (which would fit into many peoples predictions of a 2007 supply/demand shortfall) I wonder how much longer the aviation industry will hold out?
Just curious, I rely on it to visit family.

[Laurasia]

Just curious, I rely on it to visit family.

Me too!

L.

[shortonoil]

I wonder how much longer the aviation industry will hold out?

The aviation industry is the epitome of modern civilization, not only is it essential to our modern way of life, it is the epithet of that civilization. It will be propped far passed the point that logical justification will be able to support. When it fails, it will be the ultimate admission that our present technologically based why of life will have also come to its conclusion.

[Cobra_Strike]

Just for kicks, I took a 4 day bus trip from VT to WA state. The route took me up through Canada (very pretty, other then the road side clear cuts). Be happy that there are others things then planes.

[AirlinePilot]

I tend to agree with short on this one. The system will get propped up as best as possible before companies start going out of business. I think the government gets involved at some point to keep airlines going. How long that lasts is anyones guess, but the aviation network in this country is seen as essential to the economy.

Once the government steps in I think thats when to get worried. Its one of those little signposts I will start looking for which means its time to pull out of traditional investments and retirement plans and use the money for some things which might be essential down the road.

[joewp]

I always thought the airlines were pretty much propped up already.

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- This must be the dumbest American industry ever. For the past 58 years, or ever since their profit-and-loss records have been kept, US airlines have rung up a cumulative net loss of $14 billion. A loser for all time.
There will be another loss of as much as $10 billion in 2005, the carriers' trade group estimates. Three of the five biggest US airlines are hiding from creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. And these are good times for the U.S. economy.

Warren Buffet once said (after his disastrous investment in U.S. Airways): "If I'd been at Kitty Hawk in 1903 when Orville Wright took off, I would have been farsighted enough, and public-spirited enough -- I owed this to future capitalists -- to shoot him down."

[Armageddon]

wow, has anyone seen the US oil inventories ? What gives ?

[steam_cannon]

wow, has anyone seen the US oil inventories? What gives ?

Good question, here's how I read it.
Oil prices fall on inventories report link

"Gasoline futures edged up .05 cent to $2.2050 a gallon."
Tar Sulfurous oil builds up in inventories and doesn't help the gas fuel picture.

"In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 2.1 cents to $1.8086 a gallon"
Thicker tarry oil may help the heating oil picture and winter is over.

"natural gas prices rose 6.1 cents to $7.698 per 1,000 cubic feet."
[s]Even though winter is over there's still not enough natural gas! [/s] "The hotter it is the more air conditioners we run the more power we need." - strider3700

[strider3700]

"natural gas prices rose 6.1 cents to $7.698 per 1,000 cubic feet."
Even though winter is over there's still not enough natural gas!

Natural gas is used heavily in the summer to power peaker electric plants. The hotter it is the more air conditioners we run the more power we need. Winters we freeze, summers we cook. Can't convince anyone to build a modern house that would work well with little aircon or heating though.

[DantesPeak]

"natural gas prices rose 6.1 cents to $7.698 per 1,000 cubic feet."
Even though winter is over there's still not enough natural gas!

Natural gas is used heavily in the summer to power peaker electric plants. The hotter it is the more air conditioners we run the more power we need. Winters we freeze, summers we cook. Can't convince anyone to build a modern house that would work well with little aircon or heating though.

In addition, it has been widely concluded in the NG industry that the marginal cost of bringing on new NG production is almost $8. Since there is a lot of NG drilling going on right now, the market price must be at least the cost of production to keep up production.

There have even been some recent reports that some fields have revenues less than the cost of production.