ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- "AAA expects the national average price of gas will drop significantly this fall, with a possible return to $3.00 per gallon," said Catherine L. Rossi, manager of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "The national price of gas would be even lower than it is now if not for continuing gasoline outages in the Southeast U.S."
And while the gasoline shortages that have plagued that region are easing, some signs of it have not disappeared in North Carolina despite increased deliveries of fuel, reported The Asheville Citizen-Times on Tuesday. Most gas stations [image-nocss] have fuel and operators say the situation is greatly improved, but some area pumps still sport plastic bags showing they are out of fuel, the newspaper said.
Fuel supplies are still fluctuating in the Southeast, the motor club said in its latest Weekend Gas Watch, entitled "Price of Gas Dips to Lowest Levels Since Spring." Among the areas affected by limited gasoline supplies: Atlanta, Charlotte and western North Carolina, including Asheville. Other areaswhere AAA warned that motorists should be careful not to let their vehicle fuel tanks get too low are Chattanooga, Tenn.; Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C.; I-20 from Georgia to Anniston/Oxford, Ala; Athens, Dalton, Gainesville and rural areas of North and Northeast Georgia.
Areas where the supply situation has improved markedly since last week are Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn. Some truckstopsalong major roadways in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama were limiting fuel purchases.
The gasoline supply situation in the Southeast remained difficult but is projected to improve this week. Supplies have been hampered by a lack of supply from the Gulf refineries and because motorists reacted to temporarily closed pumps by topping off their tanks and lining up at gas stations to fill gas cans. States that typically have some of the least expensive fuel prices—South Carolina and Georgia—now have higher prices because of supply outages.
AAA said the nationwide price of gasoline dipped to its lowest average since May of this year. The dark cloud of turbulent financial markets and dismal economic picture held a silver lining for motorists as gasoline prices dipped lower this week as the price of crude oil and the wholesale price of gasoline fell markedly. Some retail gasoline stations (in Kansas City, Mo.) are sporting prices below $3 a gallon.
Overall, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, gasoline demand remains down. Americans drove 3.6% or 9.6 billion fewer miles in July than they did a year ago, according to data released this week by the Federal Highway Administration. This is the ninth month of consecutive year-to-year declines and could bring the lowest annual gasoline demand since 2003.
Trucking traffic has also slowed. Truckers are not buying as much diesel, or fewer trucks are on the road. Diesel sales at truckstops in August declined almost 8% from volume August 2007, the largest decline in a single month since the beginning of the year. The average diesel volume for a single truckstop was also down about 7%.
Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of crude oil closed Friday at $93.88. Oil prices rose slightly Tuesday, briefly rising back above $90 a barrel after some stability returned to the shaky financial system and prodded investors to put money back into the market, reported the Associated Press. Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.62 to $89.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $6.07 to settle on Monday at $87.81, the lowest level since February 6. Prices have fallen almost 40% since reaching a record at $147.27 on July 11. Earlier Tuesday, crude briefly shot up over $5 to $93.02 a barrel after Iranian news reports claimed that Iran forced down a Western aircraft that accidentally entered its airspace. The report said the plane was later allowed to continue to Afghanistan after questioning its passengers, and oil prices quickly gave up most of their gains.
Analysts doubted that Tuesday's mini-rally marked a turning point for crude, said AP.
Buncombe County emergency services director Jerry VeHaun told the Citizen-Times on Monday that 70% to 80% of the county's stations had gasoline. Some stations remained closed, however. "It's going to take another couple of weeks to get things back to normal, but we're doing better," VeHaun said. "The stations are getting a little inventory in the ground."
"As of [Monday] morning, 16 of our 55 stations were out of gas," Ron Freeman, chief financial officer at Ingles Markets, an area supermarket chain, told the paper. "Our buying has been steady, but still at reduced rates. What we're getting is selling quickly, but without long lines. We're starting to see more premium, as well."
Steve Baker, spokesperson for the Colonial Pipeline, one of the two pipelines that run from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas, said Monday the Colonial is actually running at a "better-than-normal" rate. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike shut down 15 refineries and the pipeline, but all but one of the refineries is back up. "Deliveries are actually a little better than before the hurricanes hit," he told the Citizen-Times. "I'm assuming that's to help people catch up on inventory."
But that catching up is taking weeks to accomplish, as stations struggle to satisfy consumer demand and replenish their underground tanks, said the report.
AAA Carolinas spokesperson Carol Gifford told the paper that the Charlotte area and the mountains are still the hardest hit. It likely will take another week or more to return to normal. "But people should expect that we're still resolving the issue, and we've not built up any kind of inventory in the ground," she said.
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