Gas tops $3 a gallon in 33 states, D.C.
9/6/2005 5:51:31 AM ET
33 states top $3 a gallon
Gas prices wallop East Coast states, as spot shortages and panic buying overcome calls for calm and conservation. Compare prices with your state.
moneycentral.msn.com
The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline topped $3 over the Labor Day weekend, reaching a benchmark most experts had thought was months or even years away in just one wrenching week.
The days since Hurricane Katrina have seen prices rise about 45 cents nationally, but that number masks unprecedented volatility. States that traditionally have seen the most expensive gasoline -- California and Hawaii, for example -- are now cheaper than most of the East and Southeast, according to AAA's daily Fuel Gauge Report. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia are reporting average unleaded prices of more than $3 a gallon.
The most expensive fuel in the nation is in the District of Columbia, at $3.35 a gallon, with New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and Maryland all topping $3.20.
The cheapest fuel was in Louisiana and Mississippi, an anomaly likely caused by the lack of reporting stations and strict emergency anti-gouging rules. Gouging was reported last week in the devastated areas, where no electricity was available to operate pumps but opportunists were selling cans of fuel in parking lots. The Mississippi Attorney General's office had a report of $20 a gallon
The cheapest gas available in a non-hurricane-affected state was in Alaska, at $2.75.
Hawaii, long the most expensive place in the nation to buy gasoline, has seen an increase of just 35 cents over the last month, according to AAA. Prices in the nation's capital, on the other hand, have jumped 90 cents in the last month.
The fast hikes are beginning to test the ability of stations to keep up. In Illinois, the state's Department of Agriculture said gas stations with older pumps that are incapable of computing and displaying prices higher than $2.99 a gallon will be allowed to temporarily post half-gallon prices.
Wholesale prices, the best indicator of what's to come, have cooled considerably since peaking at $2.41 a gallon last week. Unleaded gasoline was trading Tuesday at $2.05 a gallon.
At the retail level, "we'll go below $3 a gallon, but not by much," said oil analyst John Kilduff at Fimat USA in New York.
An austere Labor Day
The gasoline woes came just in time for the Labor Day weekend, and anecdotal reports indicate that plenty of folks cut back on their holiday driving plans. Those who did hit the price found price spikes and, in some cases, outages.
"I hear a lot of people say they feel guilty going to the beach or going camping when our neighbors in bordering states are affected forever," said Trooper Larry Schnall, a Georgia State Patrol spokesman, told the Associated Press on Saturday. "Traffic is light. I've seen very few out-of-state tags today."
Supply problems continued in Georgia and in other states most affected by Katrina's distruptions of the energy industry.
"Everybody came in here with every car they had and took everything we had in the ground," said Kip Neuhart, manager of a Chevron station in Marietta, Ga. "It took a while to get restocked."
Beyond Georgia, panic buying also caused spot shortages at some gas stations in southeastern Wisconsin, Florida and Alabama.
At a Marathon gas station near downtown Orlando, Fla., the pumps were vacant Saturday. Plastic bags covered all but a few, $3.19-a-gallon premium pumps at the station, where owner Bibi Razak usually sells 1,200 gallons daily.
"It's definitely hurting business," she said, pointing to her food and drink displays. "No one's coming here to buy the gas, so they don't come here for anything else."
Asked if she knew when the trucks carrying fuel were coming, she shook her head. "My suppliers, even they don't know when they're going to be getting any," Razak said.
Some station owners hurting
Independent gas stations, which rely on traffic from people filling up their tanks to drive sales in their stores, have been hit hard by the outages.
The marquee at a QuickTrip in Marietta, Ga., was blank and the pumps stood idle as clerk Star Payne bemoaned the slow sales in the gas station's convenience store.
"It will pick up when we get gas back," she said Sunday, but quickly added, "We have not been given any timeframe."
At a Low Cost station in Springfield, Ohio, Shahbaz Saeed ran out of gas and had to close all four pumps for a day just before the Labor Day weekend began.
"We are back up now," he said Sunday as he rang up one customer's gas and sold two packs of cigarettes to another. Saeed said he wasn't sure how much money he'd lost during his day off the market. Low Cost was selling regular unleaded for $2.93 a gallon.
In Tallahassee, Fla., many Circle K gas stations were completely out of gas Sunday and had been for several days. At a BP station that did have gas, the price stood at $3.38 a gallon for regular on Sunday. Not all stations were hurting, though. Maurice Marcellus, a 23-year-old store clerk, said the rising prices haven't slowed store sales at the BP station where he works.
"People still have to go to work," he said. "How are you going to go to work without gas?"
A long winter ahead
Several states have taken steps to control pricing, among them:
* Hawaii has capped wholesale prices, pegging to them to prices along the West Coast.
* George has suspended excise and sales taxes on gasoline until the end of September.
* Minnesota suspended regulations mandating use of summer-blend gasoline and low-sulfur diesel.
The Energy Department reported thousands of calls to its price gouging hotline from around the country last week, although officials emphasized there was no way to immediately determine how many of the allegations were valid.
Energy Department spokesman Drew Malcolm said reports of price gouging were being turned over to the FTC. (You can report cases of gouging to the Energy Information Administration here.)
The states with the most complaints were North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, New Jersey, Michigan and South Carolina.
A 'heart attack' for the oil industry
"There is some price gouging going on, but the American consumer doesn't really understand what's going on in the market," Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association, said Friday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"If the Gulf of Mexico is the heart of the oil industry, we've suffered a heart attack," he said. "When the consumer sees the price go up 50 cents, they assume that all goes to the station, and that's just not the case."
Hurricane Katrina shut down eight Gulf Coast refineries, disrupted gasoline pipelines to the Midwest and East and stopped 90% of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Half of the damaged refineries will begin to ramp up production this week, but industry experts say the situation is still serious. "What you've got are a whole series of requirements and processes and that takes days, if not weeks," John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute, told the Associated Press.
Motiva Enterprises, Marathon Oil and Valero Energy said that they hope to restart, and in some cases make fully operational, four refineries this week.
* Motiva said its Convent, La., refinery restarted on Sunday and its refinery in Norco, La., is expected to get started by mid-week. Both are located west of New Orleans.
* Marathon said over the weekend that its Garyville, La., refinery west of New Orleans should be fully operational early this week. Valero said it's still hoping to restart this week its St. Charles refinery about 15 miles from New Orleans.
When running at 100% capacity, these four represent slightly more than 1 million barrels of refined oil product a day.
Worse news at other refineries
In contrast, Chevron's 325,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., and ConocoPhillips' 247,000 barrel-a-day facility in Belle Chasse, La., south of New Orleans, have suffered major damage and are unlikely to resume production for some time, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The ConocoPhillips facility, along with Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Chalmette, La., refinery and Murphy Oil Corp.'s facility in Meraux, La., also have no power. They represent nearly 690,000 barrels a day of refined oil products.
But industry experts say that even after power is restored, restarting an oil refinery is a tricky and time-consuming process. Crews must be meticulous with repeated inspections, checking and rechecking for leaks. They must also ensure that all saltwater has been cleared or risk igniting a fire.
There are also work force issues. With communication lines either down or overloaded, many companies have not been able to locate displaced employees. Companies are providing temporary housing -- air-conditioned tents and mobile homes -- to those who have returned to work.
Government loans oil
Refineries also will receive a boost from the Department of Energy, which agreed to lend oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Exxon Mobil, Valero, Placid Refining, BP, Marathon and Total will collectively receive 12.6 millions barrels of oil.
More is available. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman offered 30 million to be provided beginning Tuesday. The reserve supply, however, must be replenished by the companies once conditions return to normal.
The agency on Monday afternoon reported that about 70% of oil production remains shut in.
Gas prices state by state
State Regular Mid Premium Diesel State Regular Mid Premium Diesel
Alaska $2.75 $2.91 $3.08 $2.82 Montana $2.91 $3.04 $3.18 $2.96
Alabama $2.96 $3.16 $3.25 $2.86 North Carolina $3.14 $3.33 $3.48 $2.95
Arkansas $2.98 $3.14 $3.34 $2.87 North Dakota $3.14 $3.25 $3.37 $2.89
Arizona $3.12 $3.26 $3.45 $3.12 Nebraska $3.20 $3.27 $3.36 $2.91
California $3.05 $3.25 $3.30 $3.38 New Hampshire $3.06 $3.32 $3.44 $2.96
Colorado $3.07 $3.28 $3.43 $2.96 New Jersey $3.15 $3.38 $3.51 $2.92
Connecticut $3.07 $3.33 $3.42 $3.07 New Mexico $3.08 $3.28 $3.42 $3.02
District of Columbia $3.35 $3.56 $3.67 $2.81 Nevada $2.99 $3.15 $3.26 $3.20
Delaware $3.22 $3.42 $3.58 $3.05 New York $3.25 $3.47 $3.55 $3.07
Florida $2.99 $3.23 $3.29 $2.95 Ohio $3.01 $3.21 $3.34 $2.88
Georgia $2.99 $3.21 $3.35 $2.87 Oklahoma $3.00 $3.10 $3.28 $2.78
Hawaii $3.02 $3.19 $3.25 $3.25 Oregon $2.89 $3.05 $3.09 $3.11
Iowa $3.07 $3.23 $3.38 $2.85 Pennsylvania $3.19 $3.37 $3.51 $3.02
Idaho $2.93 $3.09 $3.18 $3.17 Rhode Island $3.21 $3.42 $3.53 $3.00
Illinois $3.08 $3.31 $3.42 $2.97 South Carolina $3.14 $3.33 $3.49 $2.90
Indiana $3.04 $3.27 $3.36 $2.88 South Dakota $3.11 $3.31 $3.44 $2.86
Kansas $3.08 $3.17 $3.29 $2.90 Tennessee $3.09 $3.27 $3.43 $2.94
Kentucky $2.97 $3.19 $3.33 $2.80 Texas $2.96 $3.13 $3.24 $2.85
Louisiana $2.74 $2.92 $3.06 $2.74 Utah $2.90 $3.06 $3.19 $3.11
Massachusetts $3.16 $3.40 $3.53 $3.01 Virginia $3.13 $3.28 $3.41 $2.96
Maryland $3.27 $3.48 $3.56 $3.00 Vermont $3.14 $3.38 $3.53 $2.99
Maine $3.14 $3.39 $3.49 $2.99 Washington $2.92 $3.03 $3.18 $3.19
Michigan $3.05 $3.23 $3.36 $2.94 Wisconsin $3.06 $3.17 $3.32 $2.91
Minnesota $2.95 $3.06 $3.14 $2.84 West Virginia $3.01 $3.14 $3.30 $2.97
Missouri $3.02 $3.14 $3.32 $2.79 Wyoming $2.92 $3.05 $3.24 $2.89
Mississippi $2.75 $2.90 $3.03 $2.76 U.S. avg. $3.04 $3.23 $3.35 $2.96
Source: AAA Fuel Gauge Report, Sept. 5, 2005
-- MSN Money staff and wire reports |
