As Dallas Area Gas supplies Improve, New Fuel Worries for Florida as Irma Approaches (TFFA provides comments)
As Dallas Area Gas supplies Improve, New Fuel Worries for Florida as Irma Approaches (TFFA provides comments)
Story by Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Dallas Morning News
Twitter: @krobijake
Fuel supplies for panic-stricken Dallas-Fort Worth drivers are expected to improve this week as Gulf Coast refineries shuttered by Harvey begin to regroup and pipeline supplies are rerouted to bring fuel to the area from Oklahoma.
In the past few days, 13 of the 21 Texas refineries in the storm impact zone either became operational or started the process, industry watchers said. Still, experts were reluctant to circle a calendar date for when the supply challenges will be in the rearview mirror.
"Texas, I think you're over the hump, you're over the worst it," said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service.
"The area we're worried about now is Florida," which could be in the crosshairs of Hurricane Irma.
"We're going to have evacuations ... and they won't be receiving the gas they would probably get from Texas. That's the concern."
Patrick DeHaan, senior retail analyst with GasBuddy.com agreed there "could be some challenges" with fuel supplies in the Southeast, with Irma following so quickly on the heels of Harvey.
Refineries in the Gulf, including Houston, Port Arthur and Beaumont, contribute about 40 percent of the fuel used east of the Rockies, Kloza said.
Closures due to everything from power outages to water damage cut supplies in the immediate aftermath of Harvey, sending North Texas drivers into a tizzy late last week. Demand soared while consumers inched their way to gas pumps that quickly went dry.
Early this week, refineries were in restart mode in Houston, Texas City and Baytown and could be near normal in Corpus Christi by the weekend, Kloza said.
Jesus Azanza of the Texas Food & Fuel Association did not have supply figures for North Texas. He said as of Friday evening, 90 percent of the service stations in San Antonio did not have fuel and by Monday that was down to 60 percent.
The supply reduction "was manageable until the panic buying set in," Azanza said.
"It was ten times the number of drivers filling up within a 36-48 hour period versus what would be seen as normal behavior," he said.
Twitter: @krobijake
Fuel supplies for panic-stricken Dallas-Fort Worth drivers are expected to improve this week as Gulf Coast refineries shuttered by Harvey begin to regroup and pipeline supplies are rerouted to bring fuel to the area from Oklahoma.
In the past few days, 13 of the 21 Texas refineries in the storm impact zone either became operational or started the process, industry watchers said. Still, experts were reluctant to circle a calendar date for when the supply challenges will be in the rearview mirror.
"Texas, I think you're over the hump, you're over the worst it," said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service.
"The area we're worried about now is Florida," which could be in the crosshairs of Hurricane Irma.
"We're going to have evacuations ... and they won't be receiving the gas they would probably get from Texas. That's the concern."
Patrick DeHaan, senior retail analyst with GasBuddy.com agreed there "could be some challenges" with fuel supplies in the Southeast, with Irma following so quickly on the heels of Harvey.
Refineries in the Gulf, including Houston, Port Arthur and Beaumont, contribute about 40 percent of the fuel used east of the Rockies, Kloza said.
Closures due to everything from power outages to water damage cut supplies in the immediate aftermath of Harvey, sending North Texas drivers into a tizzy late last week. Demand soared while consumers inched their way to gas pumps that quickly went dry.
Early this week, refineries were in restart mode in Houston, Texas City and Baytown and could be near normal in Corpus Christi by the weekend, Kloza said.
Jesus Azanza of the Texas Food & Fuel Association did not have supply figures for North Texas. He said as of Friday evening, 90 percent of the service stations in San Antonio did not have fuel and by Monday that was down to 60 percent.
The supply reduction "was manageable until the panic buying set in," Azanza said.
"It was ten times the number of drivers filling up within a 36-48 hour period versus what would be seen as normal behavior," he said.
The GasBuddy.com tracker, which showed a sea of red Friday with gas stations reporting no supplies, showed that most Dallas-Fort Worth stations had fuel Tuesday.
Azanza estimates it could be another two weeks before the Gulf approaches pre-Harvey operational levels.
Eight Gulf refineries remained completely offline as of late Monday, according to Susan Grissom, chief industry analyst for the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.
She did not know which eight remained out of commission more than a week after Harvey made landfall. But individual energy companies have issued statements on which facilities are coming back into service.
Valero Energy Corp. said this week its Corpus Christi and Texas City oil refineries had recovered to pre-hurricane levels of operation.
The roughly 275,000 barrel-per-day Corpus Christi refinery was shut on Aug. 24 as Harvey approached the Gulf Coast, according to Reuters.
The roughly 225,000-barrel-per-day Texas City refinery returned to full production over the weekend.
Valero also said it was making preparations to resume operations at the Port Arthur refinery as it was in the "final stages" of evaluating storm damage.
At the height of the Harvey shutdowns, "we lost about 5.16 million barrels per day of Texas refining capacity which is equal to about 57 percent of the U.S. Gulf Coast refining capacity," Kloza said.
North Texas normally gets the bulk of its fuel supply from the Gulf region, DeHaan said.
Grissom noted that following the Harvey disruptions, Dallas-Fort Worth was able to access supply from beyond the Gulf.
Post Harvey, supply trucks were re-routed to more distant terminals and a pipeline that normally flows from Dallas to Oklahoma was reversed to bring fuel the the Dallas area.
That helps to boost local supplies as the industry mounts the slow, complicated process of restarting refineries and checking pipelines for any damage caused by flooding.
"There are systems and procedures in place that will help the system get back to normal more quickly," she said. "The resilience of the system is important to take into account during periods of disruption."
Azanza estimates it could be another two weeks before the Gulf approaches pre-Harvey operational levels.
Eight Gulf refineries remained completely offline as of late Monday, according to Susan Grissom, chief industry analyst for the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.
She did not know which eight remained out of commission more than a week after Harvey made landfall. But individual energy companies have issued statements on which facilities are coming back into service.
Valero Energy Corp. said this week its Corpus Christi and Texas City oil refineries had recovered to pre-hurricane levels of operation.
The roughly 275,000 barrel-per-day Corpus Christi refinery was shut on Aug. 24 as Harvey approached the Gulf Coast, according to Reuters.
The roughly 225,000-barrel-per-day Texas City refinery returned to full production over the weekend.
Valero also said it was making preparations to resume operations at the Port Arthur refinery as it was in the "final stages" of evaluating storm damage.
At the height of the Harvey shutdowns, "we lost about 5.16 million barrels per day of Texas refining capacity which is equal to about 57 percent of the U.S. Gulf Coast refining capacity," Kloza said.
North Texas normally gets the bulk of its fuel supply from the Gulf region, DeHaan said.
Grissom noted that following the Harvey disruptions, Dallas-Fort Worth was able to access supply from beyond the Gulf.
Post Harvey, supply trucks were re-routed to more distant terminals and a pipeline that normally flows from Dallas to Oklahoma was reversed to bring fuel the the Dallas area.
That helps to boost local supplies as the industry mounts the slow, complicated process of restarting refineries and checking pipelines for any damage caused by flooding.
"There are systems and procedures in place that will help the system get back to normal more quickly," she said. "The resilience of the system is important to take into account during periods of disruption."
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