Dateline: September 8, 2005

Gas consumers feel impact of hurricane

By Roger  Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

While Gulf Coast residents are dealing with the very personal effects of Hurricane Katrina, folks in Donley County are feeling the economic impact at the gas station.

The category-four hurricane hit Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi last Monday, taking a heavy toll on the United States’ domestic petroleum production. Eight major refineries were taken out of commission by the storm, which reduced the nation’s refining capacity by more than 10 percent.

By noon last Wednesday, most local stations had raised the self-serve price of regular unleaded by 20 cents to a total of $2.95 per gallon, and that price jumped to $3.05 by the week’s end.

Paul Bivens, whose Bivens Oil Company supplies gasoline to pumps at the Clarendon Outpost and Kidd’s Shell, said he placed an order for fuel last Tuesday but was told there was none that could be delivered.

“We’re paying more for gas to be delivered here anyway, but I don’t understand why the fuel ran out so fast,” Bivens said. “I mean, in just two days suddenly we go from having fuel to no fuel?”

With no delivery to replenish their tanks, Kidd’s ran out of regular unleaded Thursday, and the Outpost began asking customers to limit their purchases to 10 gallons.

“We were very concerned because this [Labor Day weekend] is like the number three weekend of the year for us,” Bivens said, “and if people can’t get gas, they are just not stopping.”

Fortunately, a shipment was delivered Saturday, and Bivens said supplies are currently fine at both stations. The Outpost was out of Unleaded Plus Tuesday morning, but he said that was due to an ordering error.

Things were not fine, however, at Clarendon’s West Texas Gas, which ran out of both farm and road diesel last Friday and was still out Tuesday morning.

“We’ve got two or three farmers that really need some diesel, and we don’t have any to deliver,” said WTG’s Lyndel Moffett. “We’re trying to locate some now; and when we find it, we’ll have to allocate it to make it last.”

Moffett said West Texas Gas locations in Claude and Groom are also out of diesel, and he didn’t know when his company might get a delivery.

“Refining is where the hold up is,” he said. “It’s not in the supply of crude oil.”

While its diesel pumps were dry, West Texas Gas did have one thing going for it – regular unleaded at below the three-dollar mark.

One customer en route to rebuild his home in Biloxi, Miss., told the Enterprise that $2.99 at West Texas Gas was the cheapest gas he had found between here and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bivens said he thinks the price of gas has stabilized for now, and Moffett thinks things will get better as refining capacity gears back up.

Meanwhile, officials at the Texas Railroad Commission are urging Texans to practice measures to conserve gasoline to help mitigate price increases caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The RRC does not have authority to regulate gasoline prices but does offer these conservation tips.

Drive Sensibly: Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by five percent around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money.

Observe the Speed Limit: Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.15 per gallon for gas. Observing the speed limit is also safer.

Remove Excess Weight: Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your mile per gallon by up to 2 percent. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle’s weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.

Avoid Excess Idling: Idling gets zero miles per gallon. Cars with larger engines typically waste more gas at idle than do cars with smaller engines.

Use Cruise Control: Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas.

Use Overdrive Gears: When you use overdrive gearing, your car’s engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces engine wear.