Supply disruptions in the Colonial Pipeline have contributed to gasoline shortages across the southeastern U.S. - Sparking a SEARCH FOR GAS IN ATLANTA

WHO HAS GAS IN ATLANTA

Atlanta Georgia is suffering a sever Gas Shortage. No need to go without, we are here with a list of WHO HAS GASOLINE IN ATLANTA and the surrounding area.
HTBW Is on a contstant searc for gas stations with a stock of gasoline so you don't ave to waste your money running around looking for GAS IN ATLANTA.

IF you run into a station with a ready supply of Gasoline in the ATLANTA AREA, please feel free to post your comments here. Please help your fellow commuters find gasoline in Georgia.

Gasoline shortages hit towns across the southeastern United States this week, sparking panic buying, long lines and high prices at stations from the small towns of northeast Alabama to Charlotte in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

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In Atlanta, half of the gasoline stations were closed, according to AAA, which said the supply disruptions had taken place along two major petroleum product pipelines that have operated well below capacity since the hurricanes knocked offshore oil production and several refineries out of service along the Gulf of Mexico.

Drivers in Charlotte reported lines with as many as 60 cars waiting to fill up late Wednesday night, and a community college in Asheville, N.C., where most of the 25,000 students commute, canceled classes and closed down Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week. Shortages also hit Nashville, Knoxville and Spartanburg, S.C., AAA said.

Terrance Bragg, a chef in Charlotte, made it to work only because his grandfather drove from a town an hour away with a 5-gallon plastic container of fuel for him. Three of his co-workers called and said they couldn't make it.

"I drove past nine or ten gasoline stations that were out of gas," Bragg said. "I had my GPS up looking for any gas in the area, from the mom-and-pop places to the corporate gas stations. Nothing. They were all taped off."

Liz Clasen-Kelly, associate director of a homeless assistance center in Charlotte, took the bus to work yesterday. On Wednesday night, she and her husband checked five stations that had no gas, passed a long line backed up onto the interstate highway and chose not to wait at an open gas station with 50 to 60 cars still lined up after 11 p.m.

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"If we had waited in that line, our car wouldn't have made it," she said, adding that the gauge was pointing to empty. The bus yesterday took her 45 minutes longer than usual. "It makes you realize how addicted you are to convenience," she said.

In Atlanta, Jonathan Tyson, a Douglasville, Ga., resident who works for a company that does training for auto and RV franchise dealerships, ran out of fuel while waiting an hour in a line about 60 cars long to fill up his Land Rover. A man from the car behind helped push Tyson's vehicle down the road.

"It was crazy," Tyson said. "People were standing on side of road with gas cans saying they'd pay the person to run a [credit] card through just to get gas so they didn't run out before they got up to the pump themselves."

The city government, which uses 10,000 gallons a day, barred the public from two stations to make sure it could keep municipal vehicles running. On Wednesday night with his fuel gauge at empty, Al T. Nottage, a senior communications specialist in the Atlanta mayor's office, looked for fuel at six stations, all closed, then called AAA and said he had run out of gasoline. It brought him two gallons, enough to get to work yesterday.

AAA spokesman John Townsend said that Colonial Pipeline, a leading supplier in the region, and the smaller Plantation Pipeline, which belongs to Kinder Morgan, were functioning below capacity because of lingering refinery problems along the Gulf coast. A spokesman for Colonial, whose Web site displays a news release from Sept. 10 before Hurricane Ike hit, did not return calls for comment.

The Energy Department said that as of Wednesday 63 percent, or 800,000 barrels a day, of production in the Gulf of Mexico was still shut down as were five refineries with a combined capacity of 1.2 million barrels a day. The refineries produce a half-million barrels of gasoline a day, or about 5 percent of the nation's total supplies. Other refineries are still working at less than full capacity. Hurricane Gustav landed Sept. 1, and Ike hit Sept. 13.

"The production loss is similar to what was lost after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina," said Anne Peebles, a Shell Oil spokeswoman. "This time the physical damage [to oil facilities] was not as great, but the down time with the storms hitting back to back is similar." She said that "more fuel is coming" as facilities gradually ramp up again, but "we do think that production availability will normalize in the next several weeks."

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Townsend said that the Colonial pipeline normally carries 100 million gallons a day, traveling about 2,500 miles from Texas, Louisiana and Alabama to 267 marketing terminals across the East and Southeast. Although nearly 15 percent of the gas stations in Virginia were reporting outages last week, the Washington region has been able to tap into supplies from areas such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which can more readily obtain supplies from tanker and other pipelines. Earlier supply problems in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Tallahassee also had eased, he said.

Other areas of the country were not so fortunate. An Atlanta Exxon dealer said that his station's allocation was only 40 percent of normal.

Mike Thornburgh, a spokesperson at QuikTrip, said that half of the gasoline retailer's 111 Atlanta area stations were open, up from a quarter last weekend. He said that QuikTrip was trying to keep stores open near commuters and schools. He said he didn't know when things would return to normal.

"I can't give a concrete answer because I don't believe anybody knows," he said.

Public officials appealed for calm as it appeared that panic buying might exacerbate supply problems if motorists try to keep more fuel than usual in their tanks. The Environmental Protection Agency suspended regulations for antipollution additives to help ease the supply situation.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue provoked some angry comments on the Atlanta Journal Constitution Web site, which quoted him as saying that "there is ample fuel in the city" and that some of the panic was "self-induced."

"Perdue says we got ample gas supplies," wrote one reader. "Then why is it that every gas station in my area is out of gas. Some have been out for over 4 days."

Prices were high in cities hurt by shortages, though not as high as they were immediately after the hurricanes. In Charlotte, price ranged from $3.84 to a high of $4.31 a gallon for regular gasoline. AAA's Townsend said that travelers to the affected areas should "be prepared for sticker shock, Southern style."

So far the area's most effected by the fuel shortage in Georgia are as follows

22% - North Metro, GA
8% - Smyrna, GA
8% - Norcross, GA

Related Internet searches on who has Gas in Georgia are below
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Mohammed Hussain got 3,000 gallons of gas delivered to his Chevron station in suburban Atlanta on Saturday. By Sunday morning, all of the gas, priced at $4.39 per gallon for regular unleaded, was gone.

"We're dry. We've got no gas here," Hussain, the station's manager, said Monday morning.

He said he has "no idea" when the next shipment will come, even though he's been in constant contact with the local terminal.

"It could be days," he said. "Obviously, we're disappointed. We're being patient. That's all we can do."

Across metro Atlanta, drivers in one of the nation's largest commuter cities are running into the same thing: a lack of gas and no clear idea when the situation will get better. State and industry officials say they're working as fast as they can and are urging people not to panic.

Christina Wedge, a resident of the Atlanta suburb Decatur, said her tank was on empty Sunday. When she went to fill up, she passed six stations closed down before finally finding one with gas for nearly $5 a gallon. She got just enough to continue looking for a cheaper price. Watch how hurricanes have wreaked havoc with gas in the South »

About a mile away, she found a station with long lines for gas around $4.29.

"I waited 30 minutes to get gas," she said. "It does concern me. I'm actually frustrated that the prices are so high."

Michael Lanfreschi, an iReporter from the suburb of Alpharetta, shared a similar story. He said he left work around noon to fill up his tank "when I started noticing all of the gas stations were empty." iReport.com: Watch gas-thirsty Georgians waiting for tanker

"There was no gas to be found, then panic set in as I approached a gas station with a 40-car line," he said. "This is causing complete chaos. Why is this happening, and what actions are being taken to prevent this from happening again, and why did it happen in the first place?"

According to AAA, Atlanta's drivers are in for sticker shock when they do find a station with gasoline. The average price in metro Atlanta, as of Monday, for a gallon of regular unleaded was $4.02, nearly 30 cents higher than the national average of $3.74

The gas supply has taken a major hit as refineries in the Houston area try to get back up to full capacity in the wake of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, state and industry officials say. The Colonial Pipeline, which typically delivers 100 million gallons of gasoline, aviation fuel and other petroleum products throughout the southeastern United States, is not running at full capacity.

"Since the hurricanes both hit, we have been tapping the reserves of the stockpiles of the fuels that were made before the hurricanes hit, and we've been delivering those," said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the pipeline.

"That's caused us to operate at a reduced rate, less than we're capable of. So that's been part of the problem that we've faced, and we're trying to overcome."

Further complicating matters is that metro Atlanta has more stringent environmental requirements than other areas, meaning gas from other cities can't be brought in because it doesn't meet the city's smog requirements. The state is working with the state energy agency and the Environmental Protection Agency about getting a temporary waiver of that rule, said Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue's office.

"I don't want anyone to think that's a panacea," he said.

But he added, "Anything that would help us get another truckload or two ... is going to help the situation."

Brantley said the state has already lifted some regulations allowing for drivers to work more hours to get fuel from the main terminal to stations and for heavier trucks to be allowed to carry larger loads than normal. The state is asking people who don't need to fill up their tanks to wait until later before doing so.

"There's somewhat of a shortage right now, but it certainly could get a lot worse if people were to panic and react in a way that would cause a run and drain what supply there is out there now," Brantley said. "That's why we're encouraging Georgians to conserve as much as possible."

The state would not offer a timeframe on when the situation might return to normal. Brantley, however, said the situation with Houston's refineries is getting better every day.

Jim Tudor, the president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, which represents about 2,600 stores, praised the state for lifting some of the restrictions to allow for quicker delivery of fuel.

"We are working as fast as possible to try to get as many stations refilled," he said. "Having said that, we're still in catch-up mode."

That brings little relief to consumers.

Dustin Gatlin said he waited 45 minutes Sunday at an Atlanta QuikTrip before it shut down. He then waited for well over an hour at a different station.

"Yesterday, we were in line for about two hours and they actually had people [who worked for the gas station] out there directing traffic because there were people jumping in line, and they actually had to get people out there to watch," he said.

Atlanta Georgia Suffering through Gas supply/Price Crisis

Residents in the Atlanta are scrambling to find gas as supply problems left over from two recent hurricanes make it hard to fill up the tank.

Some stations were out of gas on Monday, while others were down to a single pump or offering only one grade of gas.

State and industry officials say one factor causing the shortage is the interruption of the supply from the Gulf of Mexico, where refineries were hit hard by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

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Another factor is the required use of cleaner-burning fuel in Atlanta, which means fuel can't be easily diverted from other areas that have sufficient supplies.

Industry officials say refineries are quickly restoring supply, but some station owners say they've been warned not to expect normal supplies for days.

In AAA Auto Club South's weekly fuel report, they noted that supply is thin in certain areas across the Southeast, but that the supply is improving daily. The shortage led to higher than normal gas prices over the past week, but that is forecasted to decline as supply is expected to increase this week.

"The gasoline supply situation is improving, but it's like trying to turn a huge ship. It just takes time," said Randy Bly, Director of Community Relations for AAA Auto Club South.

On Sunday, some residents have said they were considering taking Monday off because they just could not find a gas station with any fuel. Other motorists waited in long lines that stretched to the street at the few stations they found to still have gas.

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Officials said they wanted to stress to the communities that no one should be hording gasoline. Cars should only be refilled when they are close to empty and drivers should not top off tanks when they are half full or more. They stressed that more gasoline is on the way.

The Colonial Pipeline, the nation's largest, is the major source of gasoline in Georgia. The Alpharetta-based company said they usually carry an average of 100 million gallons of gasoline and other refined petroleum everyday, but they are not at that capacity yet due to a lack of supply from the refineries.

The Department of Energy said in a report release Friday, that Hurricane Ike knocked out about 20% of the nation's refining capacity along the Gulf; the lowest since November 1967, but that figure is shrinking everyday. The report said that ten refineries in Texas and Louisiana were still offline, but three of those refineries could be up and producing gasoline as early as Wednesday. The report also outlined several refineries' plan to increase production to offset the demand.

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AAA reported that the average price of regular unleaded gas in Georgia Sunday was $3.99 which is $0.23 higher than the national average and only $0.02 cheaper than the average for Metro Atlanta resident. Overall across the state, gas is up about $0.39 from last month and about $1.25 higher than a year ago. The price of crude oil closed Friday at $104.55 per barrel.

GAS PRICES Rise as HURRICANE IKE Heads Towards Texas

The Pantry Stores have put up signs asking customers to limit customers to 10 gallons of gas because of the potential for gas shortages.

The pumps are not automatically cutting off at 10 gallons yet.

The pantry owns the Kangaroo chain and several other chains.

A worker, contracted to service the pumps at those stations, tells Nine on Your Side that it’s in anticipation of Hurricane Ike, which has shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The worker says to expect a big jump in prices at the pump as early as tomorrow.

Meanwhile, folks to the south of us have already seen gas prices jump, if they can get gas at all.

In Greenville, South Carolina, stations have raised prices about 40 cents.

Others have put bags over their pumps because they are out of gas.

Hurricane Gustav shut down oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, and now Hurricane Ike is keeping them from reopening.

And it’s trickling all the way up the coast.


Retail gasoline prices rose modestly for the second day in a row Thursday as Hurricane Ike entered the Gulf of Mexico, according to a nationwide survey of gas station credit card swipes. But wholesale gas prices in the region soared.

Wholesale jump: As the storm churned toward the Texas coast, wholesale gas prices were up more than $1.50. On Wednesday, a gallon of gas cost $3.25 on the Gulf Coast wholesale market, and by Thursday afternoon, wholesale gas cost more than $4.75 a gallon, according to Tom Kloza, the chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service, an independent publisher that follows wholesale and retail fuel prices in North America.

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The Gulf Coast wholesale market is the largest bulk market for wholesale gasoline in the world, according to Kloza.

"They are absolutely going ballistic in the Gulf Coast," said Kloza, and the pricing is based on fear of Ike shuttering refineries.

When wholesale gas prices go up, that pushes up retail prices, because dealers pass on the price jump to consumers. But Kloza said that given the oddity of the current situation, he does not expect prices at the pump to jump nearly as drastically as wholesale prices.

"You may see companies that traditionally pass on these increases only pass on a portion," said Kloza. "It is very complicated but I don't think you can use the normal metric," in this situation.

The spike up in the wholesale market could come back down as quickly as it shot up, said Kloza. "We could be at $5 a gallon for wholesale tomorrow afternoon. We could be at $3."

The futures contract for October delivery of wholesale gas was still trading around $2.78 a gallon.

Production shutdown: As of Thursday, 78.4%, or 562 of the 717 manned production platforms remained evacuated, according to the Minerals Management Service. And about 95.9% of oil production in the region has been shuttered.

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Forecasters are currently predicting Ike will hit Texas, just south of Galveston, as a major Category 3 hurricane late Friday or early Saturday but the storm remains unpredictable. Still, the Lone Star state has started or planned mandatory and voluntary evacuations in at least seven coastal counties.

Retail prices: The average price of regular unleaded gasoline edged up 0.3 cents to $3.671 a gallon from $3.668 a day earlier, motorist group AAA said Thursday. Gas prices had previously risen in response to Hurricane Gustav, which forced workers to abandon offshore oil rigs ahead of that storm.

Gas prices jumped 0.5 cents to $3.537 a gallon in Texas. Prices also popped higher in Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. However, prices edged lower in Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Prices have trended higher in the Midwest and Southeast partly due to production delays caused by Gustav, said Tom Kloza from Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). He noted that prices are expected to continue rising as Hurricane Ike churns through the Gulf of Mexico.

Nationwide, Alaska and Hawaii remained the two states with gas prices still tracking above $4 a gallon. The cheapest gas continues to be found in New Jersey, where prices averaged $3.409 a gallon.

Crude prices have trended lower amid heightened concern about weakening demand. Oil prices continue to hover around their lowest level in five months.

On Wednesday, crude prices churned throughout the session as heightened concern about slumping demand overshadowed a government report showing a bigger-than-expected decline in oil and gasoline inventories.

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Crude futures for October delivery settled down 68 cents a barrel at $102.58 - their lowest close since April 1. Early Thursday, prices edged 43 cents lower to $102.15 a barrel.

Meanwhile, gas remains about 10.8%, or 44 cents, below the record high average of $4.114 that AAA reported on July 17, but remains 86 cents above this time last year

First Published: September 11, 2008: 6:48 AM EDT