Where'd it go?!
 

Murfreesboro Tennessee is out of gas. Don't see why we can't bring any in. Only a few oil rigs went down because of the hurricane (I'm sorry for anyone that lives in Texas). Not like Texas is the only state that produces oil. Can anyone explain it?

But the Houston area has the largest single concentration of oil refineries in the US.

So, when Ike came along, the oil speculators went nutso. Fucked it up for the rest of us.

It's not the rigs that is the problem..

it's the refineries.. where they turn the oil to gas.. which a LARGE part of them are in Texas.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/refineries.htm

Lord Snow,

Good Question - and a real problem!

It's all so damn ridiculous though. I was speaking with Shadozfire last night and she was saying that one of the stations in the area she evacuated to had a tanker come in yesterday and the gas price had gone up about $1.30 from the time the tanker got to the station to the time all of the fuel had been sold a few hours later. I guess the fuel that didn't sell right away must've been worth more because it had aged a couple of hours. :confused:

It happens both ways though.. the price can go down regardless of when a truck comes in. They adjust the selling price based on the price they expect to have to pay to replace it (sorta.. complex formula :D).

The prices going up with the pump had a lot of do with the media and people having a the skys falling attitude.. if everyone across the country didn't rush to go get gas immediately prior to Ike would the price have gone up as much? I think it was more of a perceived shortage than anything based on fact. With the refineries tempoarily shut down yeah some areas may have ended up with shortages.. but not everywhere.

Costie,

You are probably correct. Had there been a real gasoline shortage, it would have made national news. Unless, of course, the syndicated news networks were part of the presumed conspiracy, etc. Until people think before jumping to conclusions, unfortunate situations like this will be repeated.

Even if Texas has the largest concentration of oil refineries, that still doesn't answer the question of why can't get some from other states have a few? We're supposed to be a country. United we stand, divided we fall. I'm sure there are a few search and rescue teams and supplies down in Texas that came from Tennessee as well as other states. Why can't other states give us a hand and send some fuel? Then again, that decision is left up to the politicians. Besides, most of the fuel we buy from gas stations doesn't even come from our refineries. It comes from over seas. Where we happen to be at war.

The other thing is that they knew for some time this storm was coming. I am sure they rushed to send as much product out as possible from those refineries in the days prior to the storm. I think this is all BS.

Oil/Fuel is a commodity, as far as the transfer and shipping the government has about zero to do with it. If the company your gas station normally gets gas from gets its gas from a company that gets theirs from a texas refinery they may not be able to on short notice get fuel from somewhere else, plus there is just limited infrastructure and delivery vehicles. As far as this aspect, it's not really a political thing at all, it's a corporate/capitalist thing.

Furthermore..

In 2005, United States refineries produced over 90 percent of the gasoline used in the United States. Less than 40 percent of the crude oil used by U.S. refineries was produced in the United States. About 45 percent of gasoline produced in the United States comes from refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast (including Texas and Louisiana).

Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/contactexperts.htm

It's a common misconception, we import alot of oil but almost all of the gasoline is refined here. And then half of the capability is in the Texas/Louisiana area so gasoline prices are very much effected by hurricanes that hit that area (supply and demand economy). To complicate things even more our refineries are OLD, and there is little to no spare capacity in the refineries. :D

The oil companies would have several weeks supplies stashed to cover breakdowns, storms etc. It sounds like a distribution problem to me.

For those who are willing to accept the US DOE’s numbers, in June of this year, there were approximately 107 million barrels of gasoline stock. Also in June daily consumption was approximately 9 million barrels. This works out to less than 1 day’s consumption stockpiled.

With a margin as thin as that, a little bit of panic buying goes a long way.

The Galviston/Houston area produces just 20% of US gas. It was the station owners and consumers who paniced over the news of a shortage.

jseal,

107 KK barrels in store

9KK barrels per day consumption.

Almost 12 days of stockpile by my maths.

107 mb June gasoline stock

(9 mb/day * 30 days in June) = 270 mb June consumption

107 / 270 < 1