Gas prices surge as Ike moves in | ajc.com
updated: 9:22 p.m. September 12, 2008
Atlantans rush to gas pumps
By MICHAEL E. KANELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, September 12, 2008
As a massive storm pounded through the heart of America’s oil zone Friday, the pumps of metro Atlanta were feeling the impact.
In what hinted at a replay of the near-panic that followed Hurricane Rita, prices around the region exceeded $5 a gallon in some places. Some stations ran out of gasoline, and some of those still open found lines forming.
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“I should have gassed up yesterday,” Ken Reese, 40, of Alpharetta said Friday afternoon as he pumped $3.99-a-gallon regular into his black Mercedes at a Shell station on Old Milton Road. “This is crazy. I thought I’d hit super by mistake.”
Reese might have done worse: At an Ingles in Cumming, usually a discount station, regular sold for $5.20 a gallon before dropping later in the day.
Prices had started to tick up early in the week as Hurricane Ike took aim at the Texas coast. Then the refineries, production platforms and rigs shut down as Ike drew closer, and price hikes accelerated.
Metro Atlanta’s average price for unleaded was $3.75 as of late Friday afternoon, up from $3.61 on Thursday, according to atlantagasprices.com, which compiles motorist reports. That’s up 19 cents from one week ago.
Late Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed an executive order activating a state statute against price gouging that allows prosecution of stations that raise prices excessively.
In 2002, gasoline was selling in Atlanta for less than 90 cents a gallon. It then began a steady climb to a crest of $4.10 a gallon this July, according to atlantagasprices.com.
Fuel’s rise — which has helped lift many other prices, especially food — has strained finances of companies and consumers alike. Yet recently, the price of oil dropped 30 percent and gas prices too drifted lower.
On Friday, the September survey from the University of Michigan showed a healthy improvement in consumer confidence — a gain that was pegged to the gas price decline. That gain seems now to be in jeopardy.
“Every dollar you have, you ask which bill will I pay, how much gas will I put in the car,” Cornell Willis of Marietta said after putting gas into his SUV at a Citgo on Windy Hill Road in Smyrna. “I had to cut down on a lot of things I want to do. I don’t go out as much. I work at home a lot.”
A hurricane-related spike in gas prices also occurred in 2005, after two storms — Katrina and Rita — that the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported destroyed 115 Gulf oil platforms and damaged 52.
Roughly 30 percent of American refining capacity is in the path of the latest monster storm. But since 2005, oil companies have beefed up their infrastructure in the Gulf. Much of the equipment is capable of withstanding 100 mph-plus winds. But even the toughest of the rigs and refineries have shut down to ride out Ike.
It generally takes a few days to crank up operations again after a storm has passed. In the interim, the region could see higher prices and possibly even some shortages, said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN, an electronic media company covering energy markets.
Even if the storm does minimal damage, gas prices will probably rise 10 to 20 cents a gallon at the pump, he said. Should Ike deliver a nastier punch, gas could easily crest well above $4 a gallon, he said.
“It could be very dramatic,” Newsom said.
But the hurricane spike — whether modest or massive — should last only a few weeks, he said.
Supplies had been tighter than normal, but still sufficient, after Hurricane Gustav briefly shut down much of the Gulf’s oil facilities two weeks ago. There would still have been enough Friday if drivers in droves had not suddenly decided they needed to fill up, said Tex Pitfield, president and chief executive of Saraguay Petroleum Corp., a distributor.
“This is the knee-jerk reaction we have been trying to avoid,” he said. “There is ample supply, and this creates a run that we can’t keep up.”
That run had siphoned the gas from two stations in Cumming by midafternoon — B.J.’s on Market Place Parkway and the RaceTrac just off Ga. 400. “We were told they’ll get to us as soon as they can,” said Brandon Fey, manager of the Cumming RaceTrac.
At about the same time, unleaded fuel peaked at $5.20 at the Ingles just down the street on Ga. 20. By 5 p.m., the price was down to $4.51. “We got a little bit more gas in this afternoon,” said Clay Garland, a clerk at the station.
Other stations, such as the Exxon on Buford Dam Road, were left with only premium gas. The story was the same in Alpharetta, where commuter Larry McCurdy said the BP on Ga. 9 was left with only premium grade fuel.
Meanwhile, at the Costco on Ga. 9 at Windward Parkway, cars were lined up five to six deep, McCurdy said.
Long lines began forming at Cumming gas stations after 5 p.m., with traffic backed up onto Ga. 20 at the BP just off Exit 14 on Ga. 400.
— Staff writers Christian Boone, John Hollis, Shane Blatt, Doug Nurse, Kent Miles, Donna Williams Lewis, Dan Chapman and Shelia M. Poole contributed to this article.
updated: 9:22 p.m. September 12, 2008
Atlantans rush to gas pumps
By MICHAEL E. KANELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, September 12, 2008
As a massive storm pounded through the heart of America’s oil zone Friday, the pumps of metro Atlanta were feeling the impact.
In what hinted at a replay of the near-panic that followed Hurricane Rita, prices around the region exceeded $5 a gallon in some places. Some stations ran out of gasoline, and some of those still open found lines forming.
• Find best prices
BUSINESS
“I should have gassed up yesterday,” Ken Reese, 40, of Alpharetta said Friday afternoon as he pumped $3.99-a-gallon regular into his black Mercedes at a Shell station on Old Milton Road. “This is crazy. I thought I’d hit super by mistake.”
Reese might have done worse: At an Ingles in Cumming, usually a discount station, regular sold for $5.20 a gallon before dropping later in the day.
Prices had started to tick up early in the week as Hurricane Ike took aim at the Texas coast. Then the refineries, production platforms and rigs shut down as Ike drew closer, and price hikes accelerated.
Metro Atlanta’s average price for unleaded was $3.75 as of late Friday afternoon, up from $3.61 on Thursday, according to atlantagasprices.com, which compiles motorist reports. That’s up 19 cents from one week ago.
Late Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed an executive order activating a state statute against price gouging that allows prosecution of stations that raise prices excessively.
In 2002, gasoline was selling in Atlanta for less than 90 cents a gallon. It then began a steady climb to a crest of $4.10 a gallon this July, according to atlantagasprices.com.
Fuel’s rise — which has helped lift many other prices, especially food — has strained finances of companies and consumers alike. Yet recently, the price of oil dropped 30 percent and gas prices too drifted lower.
On Friday, the September survey from the University of Michigan showed a healthy improvement in consumer confidence — a gain that was pegged to the gas price decline. That gain seems now to be in jeopardy.
“Every dollar you have, you ask which bill will I pay, how much gas will I put in the car,” Cornell Willis of Marietta said after putting gas into his SUV at a Citgo on Windy Hill Road in Smyrna. “I had to cut down on a lot of things I want to do. I don’t go out as much. I work at home a lot.”
A hurricane-related spike in gas prices also occurred in 2005, after two storms — Katrina and Rita — that the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported destroyed 115 Gulf oil platforms and damaged 52.
Roughly 30 percent of American refining capacity is in the path of the latest monster storm. But since 2005, oil companies have beefed up their infrastructure in the Gulf. Much of the equipment is capable of withstanding 100 mph-plus winds. But even the toughest of the rigs and refineries have shut down to ride out Ike.
It generally takes a few days to crank up operations again after a storm has passed. In the interim, the region could see higher prices and possibly even some shortages, said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN, an electronic media company covering energy markets.
Even if the storm does minimal damage, gas prices will probably rise 10 to 20 cents a gallon at the pump, he said. Should Ike deliver a nastier punch, gas could easily crest well above $4 a gallon, he said.
“It could be very dramatic,” Newsom said.
But the hurricane spike — whether modest or massive — should last only a few weeks, he said.
Supplies had been tighter than normal, but still sufficient, after Hurricane Gustav briefly shut down much of the Gulf’s oil facilities two weeks ago. There would still have been enough Friday if drivers in droves had not suddenly decided they needed to fill up, said Tex Pitfield, president and chief executive of Saraguay Petroleum Corp., a distributor.
“This is the knee-jerk reaction we have been trying to avoid,” he said. “There is ample supply, and this creates a run that we can’t keep up.”
That run had siphoned the gas from two stations in Cumming by midafternoon — B.J.’s on Market Place Parkway and the RaceTrac just off Ga. 400. “We were told they’ll get to us as soon as they can,” said Brandon Fey, manager of the Cumming RaceTrac.
At about the same time, unleaded fuel peaked at $5.20 at the Ingles just down the street on Ga. 20. By 5 p.m., the price was down to $4.51. “We got a little bit more gas in this afternoon,” said Clay Garland, a clerk at the station.
Other stations, such as the Exxon on Buford Dam Road, were left with only premium gas. The story was the same in Alpharetta, where commuter Larry McCurdy said the BP on Ga. 9 was left with only premium grade fuel.
Meanwhile, at the Costco on Ga. 9 at Windward Parkway, cars were lined up five to six deep, McCurdy said.
Long lines began forming at Cumming gas stations after 5 p.m., with traffic backed up onto Ga. 20 at the BP just off Exit 14 on Ga. 400.
— Staff writers Christian Boone, John Hollis, Shane Blatt, Doug Nurse, Kent Miles, Donna Williams Lewis, Dan Chapman and Shelia M. Poole contributed to this article.
