U.S. gasoline prices surged 36 cents overnight at the pumps to a record average of $2.99 a gallon today as hurricane damage to oil refineries and pipelines along the Gulf Coast sent wholesale prices soaring and retailers scrambled to find supplies.
“That’s incredible – it was a huge jump in 24 hours,” said Brad Proctor, founder of Gaspricewatch, which calculated the price for regular grade gasoline from reports by volunteer price-spotters. Proctor said he had received 75 reports of stations that closed last night because they ran out of fuel.
Hurricane Katrina forced the shutdown of at least eight U.S. crude-oil refineries when it came ashore near New Orleans three days ago, idling 10 percent of the nation’s capacity and shutting pipelines transporting fuel to the rest of the country.
Cathy Kooken, 55, a mother of two kids, shook her head as she pumped gas for $3.99 a gallon into her 2003 Toyota Sequoia sport-utility vehicle at a Shell station in Roswell, Georgia.
She spent $64 for 16 gallons.
“I’m going to have to trade this gas-guzzler in,” Kooken said. “Four dollars is gouging.” Any gas station in Roswell advertising a price under $3 had no gasoline. Kooken said she went to three other gas stations before finding one with fuel to sell. The night before, panicked motorists formed lines as long as a mile at stations in Georgia where a record $5.68 a gallon was reported, and Governor Sonny Perdue enacted an executive order outlawing price gouging.
50-Cent Jumps Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, which rely on the Gulf refineries for supply, saw prices jump on average 50 cents to more than $3 a gallon yesterday, before stabilizing today, Proctor said.
“We’re expecting multiple price increases throughout the day,” said John Eichberger, director of motor fuels at the National Association of Convenience Stores. About 110,000 convenience stores sell gasoline.
The average pump price nationally was $2.59 a week ago, according to Gaspricewatch. The highest price reported to the group for regular grade gas today was $4.50 a gallon in Chamblee, Georgia and the lowest was $2.35 in Buffalo, Wyoming.
While some retailers with contracts to sell branded gasoline are seeing their supplies limited, Eichberger said, independents are getting hit hardest. “John’s Gas Station on the corner is in big trouble,” he said.
Diesel Supplies Diesel fuel supplies also have been constrained. Flying J Inc., an Ogden Utah-based operator of 170 truck stops in the U.S. and Canada, added a new feature to its Web site, indicating locations where supplies of the fuel are low.
At a BP station in downtown Chicago, the $3.11-a-gallon price for regular was “ridiculous,” said Donna Johnson, a 41- year-old bank worker.
“I’m going to consider taking the bus to work if they keep up like this,” said Johnson, who drives 30 minutes to work in her Kia Sorrento.
In an effort to ease shortages, the federal government yesterday eased restrictions on the blends of gasoline and diesel that can be used, which vary with the season and from state to state for environmental reasons, allowing supplies to be allocated more easily where they are needed.
Taxi Driver In New York, a Mobil station on Manhattan’s East Side charged $2.99 a gallon for regular. A Nepalese immigrant named Lama, 34, said he was spending $37 to $38 extra a day on gasoline for the taxi he drives 11 hours a day. “Of course, I’m worried,” he said.
Prices as high as $3.69 a gallon for regular and as low as $2.65 a gallon were reported in New York City by Gasbuddy.com, a Web site that also uses volunteers for its data and listed an average price nationally today of $2.97 a gallon.
Michigan was the most expensive state, with a gallon of regular averaging $3.26, followed by Indiana at $3.19, according to the site. Louisiana and Utah had the lowest prices, at $2.57 and $2.67, respectively.
Gasoline for October delivery surged 14.47 cents, or 6.4 percent, to $2.40 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:25 a.m. Prices are more than double levels a year ago.
The September gasoline contract touched $2.92 a gallon yesterday, the last day it traded, the highest since trading began in 1984.
Crude Oil Crude oil for October delivery fell 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $68.75 a barrel. The contract touched $70.85 on Aug. 30, the highest since futures trading began in 1983.
Prices are 56 percent higher than a year ago.
Colonial Pipeline Co., the world’s largest operator of petroleum-product pipelines, restarted a pair of fuel pipelines yesterday that run from Houston through Louisiana to New York, providing 25 percent to 35 percent of normal capacity, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company said in a statement today.
Lack of power is the main constraint and the company is installing generators that may increase flow on the lines to as much as 50 percent to 60 percent of normal capacity by the weekend, spokesman Steve Baker said.