Gas Shortages Linger Despite Increase In Deliveries

Most gas stations have fuel and operators say the situation is greatly improved, but some area pumps still sport plastic bags showing there isn't fuel in them, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Tuesday.

Buncombe County emergency services director Jerry VeHaun said Monday that 70 to 80 percent of the county's stations had gas. Some stations remained closed, however.

"It's going to take another couple of weeks to get things back to normal, but we're doing better," VeHaun said. "The stations are getting a little inventory in the ground."

The shortages began after hurricanes shut down refineries along the Gulf coast and squeezed off supplies to a pipeline that serves central and western North Carolina.

"As of (Monday) morning, 16 of our 55 stations were out of gas," said Ron Freeman, chief financial officer at Ingles Markets, an area supermarket chain.

"Our buying has been steady, but still at reduced rates. What we're getting is selling quickly, but without long lines. We're starting to see more premium (grade fuel) as well."

Florida resident Iain Calder, who rents a home in Lake Toxaway each year, said the shortages baffled him.

"I don't understand why the government and local politicians haven't addressed this," Calder said.

Scott Shealy, vice president of Citizens Fuel Co., which operates 10 stations in the Asheville area and supplies another 15, said supplies still were tight at the South Carolina terminals that bring fuel to the mountains.

"I think we're still at a point where everything that is coming in is, by and large, going into vehicles as opposed to going into underground storage tanks," Shealy said.

Steve Baker, spokesman for the Colonial Pipeline, one of the two pipelines that run from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas, said Monday the Colonial is actually running at a ?better than normal? rate. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike shut down 15 refineries and the pipeline, but all but one of the refineries is back up.

?Deliveries are actually a little better than before the hurricanes hit,? Baker said. ?I'm assuming that's to help people catch up on inventory.?

But that catching up is taking weeks to accomplish, as stations struggle to satisfy consumer demand and replenish their underground tanks.

Shealy explained that at Citi Stop stations, for instance, the underground tanks hold 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of fuel. None of his 10 stations were out of fuel Monday, but they also don't have a normal underground supply.

?Between the 10 stores we have, and the 15 we supply, you're talking about somewhere in the vicinity of a half million gallons of gas ? and I'm a relatively small retailer,? Shealy said. ?If you extrapolate that across Asheville and other affected areas, that's a lot of tanks that are trying to get filled.?

AAA Carolinas spokeswoman Carol Gifford said the Charlotte area and the mountains are still the hardest hit. It likely will take another week or more to return to normal.

"But people should expect that we're still resolving the issue, and we've not built up any kind of inventory in the ground," she said.