Nashville gas starts to run dry

[chitoryu12]

Walletpop

Sept. 20) - Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy: An estimated three-fourths of gas stations in the Nashville, Tennessee, area ran dry Friday, victim of an apparent rumor that the city was running out of gas.
"Everybody has just gone nuts," said Mike Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council.

He said he has no idea about the origin of a rumor that there was going to be no gas in Nashville. One reporter called him, saying she had heard that Nashville would be without gas within the hour, he said.
Hearing the rumor, drivers rushed to fill their cars and trucks.
CNN called 13 Nashville gas stations at random. Only two reported having gas, and one said it was almost out. The stations said they were being told they would not get more until Monday or Tuesday.
Katie Givens Kime, visiting from Atlanta, Georgia, was trying to fill up her tank for the trip home when she ran into trouble -- when she was already low on gas.
"We panicked and looked online," she said. "And holy cow, there is no gas in the city. ... It has definitely gripped the city, for sure."
One store clerk told her there was no way she could get gas to go back home, she said.
Williams said some drivers were following gas trucks to see where they were headed, and lines at some stations were a mile long. Fuel was continuing to enter the city, however, as pipelines were working and barges were coming in.
He likened it to Southerners rushing out to stock up on bread and milk when they hear it might snow. As stations began running low, the situation snowballed, he said.
One station reported selling as much gas Friday as it usually does in a weekend, Williams said.

The phenomenon seemed to be isolated to the Nashville area, he said.
Givens Kime said she found a station online that still had gas and waited more than an hour to pump it.
"People were freaked out," she said. A "renegade bunch" of men helped direct traffic to and from the pumps, even taking drivers' cash inside for them. She described people filling cans and other containers as well as cars.
She said that the station was not engaging in price gouging but that "emotions were running very high" among drivers.

I'd like to see exactly where these rumors started. "Self-fulfilling prophecy" is right. Call it mass hysteria, if you will.

[Surlethe]

One of the weirdest things about human behavior, especially economic behavior, is how we can expect something that has no chance of happening, and simply because of that expectation, turn it into reality. It's just like in the stock market: if people expect the price to go down, they will sell, and that will drive the price down.

[Master of Cards]

Up here in St Louis, I noticed about 1/10 of the stations were shutting down 87 and 89 octane pumps because they were running out. The problem was people rushed stations when they heard they were running out of gas and they didn't get their shipments in yet.

[Covenant]

I also like the "bread and milk" story. C'mon people, it's just snow. How much snow could the south actually get, worst case? Anyway, this is fairly hilarious mass hysteria, utterly ridiculous on it's face and completely ridiculous in practice. It's interesting to see how crazy people can go in a short amount of time if they think their fuel can run out.

[Natorgator]

It's been happening in the Atlanta are too. Pisses me off.

[General Zod]

I also like the "bread and milk" story. C'mon people, it's just snow. How much snow could the south actually get, worst case?

I think that's kind of the point really. It's such an unlikely occurrence people wind up assuming it must be horrible when it happens.

[Ted C]

I'd like to see exactly where these rumors started. "Self-fulfilling prophecy" is right. Call it mass hysteria, if you will.

In my case, it was being spread around the office by email. And there actually were a lot of stations out by the time I left work, with cars lined up around the block at the rest (police directing traffic around some of them).

Fortunately, one of my cars already had a full tank, so I just went home and stayed in for the weekend.

Pain in the ass, though.

[Ekiqa]

When gas stations run dry in Canada, its because of a supply problem.

The gas companies shut down so many refineries that there is no buffer zone. One refinery goes down, and you're at 80% capacity.

Could be similar down there.

[chitoryu12]

When gas stations run dry in Canada, its because of a supply problem.

The gas companies shut down so many refineries that there is no buffer zone. One refinery goes down, and you're at 80% capacity.

Could be similar down there.

Not in this case. As soon as someone started a rumor that the gas was running dry, they all began sprinting to the pumps with gas cans and their cars to fill up. That's what made it a self-fulfilling prophecy. They were so worried that gas was drying up they...dried it up first. It's a similar mindsent that caused the stock market crash of 1929.

[Ted C]

According to new reports this morning, air pollution problems around Nashville require a special blend of gas to be used that's supposed to reduce related pollution. This blend is only required during the summer, and the requirement would expire on September 15th. Consequently, most of the area gas stations were letting their tanks run low so they could refill them with less expensive gas after the 15th. Then Ike caused the Gulf coast refineries to shut down, meaning there was nothing come in on the Colonial Pipeline.

So, for business reasons, most stations had a pretty low supply before the hurricane hit, which keep them from being able to resupply.

[chitoryu12]

In other words, the gas could have dried up anyway, but they just quickened the pace?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Atlanta's out of the game.

[Broomstick]

Hmmm.... reminds me, need to top off the vehicles this week...

Anyhow - Atlanta runs out of gas, maybe grinds to halt. It's just one shitstorm after another this year, isn't it? Makes you wonder where it will all end. Me, I hope the republicans get all this laid at their doorstep and people stop being sheeple mindlessly following the so-called "leaders" that have been running the country into the ground.

Meanwhile, I keep on trying to keep my corner of the universe under control. It's getting harder.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Why do the Republicans want to endure this storm any longer than necessary? There is a growing following around the belief that this whole bailout plan is simply a way to rape and pillage America (Rome) of what's left before the elections and relieving of power.

By the time the wheels come off completely, the people responsible who aren't your frivolous, brain-dead neighbours will be living a long, long way away from the pitchforks and torches of the mob.

[Surlethe]

I wonder whether price-gouging laws prevented the stations from raising the price when these ridiculous demand surges started. If the stations had been permitted to raise price as much as they wanted, I'll bet that would have mitigated somewhat the run on the pumps.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I wonder whether price-gouging laws prevented the stations from raising the price when these ridiculous demand surges started. If the stations had been permitted to raise price as much as they wanted, I'll bet that would have mitigated somewhat the run on the pumps.

Station owners can be subpoenaed to open the books to scrutiny so as to curb gouging. Thing is, it makes it so you can only recoup the cost of the fuel you bought, not actually make profit to operate, from what I've heard. In which case, anyone trying to earn a living at this time by adding charges over the resale value of the fuel will be demonised.

The retailers have simply left prices the same and now we have shortages, rather than raise prices like after Katrina and face price gouging allegations.

[Broomstick]

Most gas stations in the US make little or no profit on gas, they make their money on the little shops at the stations where they sell candy, lottery tickets, canned food, cold soda, and the like.

[Mayabird]

Atlanta's out of the game.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! SUCK IT DOWN, ATLANTA! WEEP BITTER TEARS AND PRAY TO YOUR PATHETIC INEFFECTUAL BAPTIST GOD! WHERE'S YOUR PRAYING AT THE PUMP NOW? MAYBE NOW YOU'LL REGRET NOT INVESTING IN PUBLIC TRANSIT well, probably not (notice how the article never once said, "Hey Atlantans, we have this thing called MARTA and buses, you know, where someone else drives and you ride and don't buy gas?"), but you should be.

Ah, schadenfreude is sweet. Running out of water, running out of gas, and it's all being run by a dumb hick who's more interested in how the city paper talks about the UGA football team. I got out when the getting-out was good.


Oh yeah, and I remember the runs on bread and milk whenever there was the threat of maybe a single snowflake falling somewhere in the state. Everyone would forget how to drive, too.

[Admiral Valdemar]

So I should reconsider retiring to Atlanta? Oh shoot.

[Natorgator]

Not all of us who live in the south are retarded. There's plenty of gas to be found if you go at the right times. I'm hoping this craze ends soon so I can make it to Florida next week.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Not all of us who live in the south are retarded. There's plenty of gas to be found if you go at the right times. I'm hoping this craze ends soon so I can make it to Florida next week.

If anything, it will get worse for the next couple of weeks. Most of the oil and gas infrastructure is still off-line and imports won't be able to deal with this when the rest of the world is on a knife edge as it is with respect to spare capacity. Diesel is fine in the US, you export it, but gasoline is very tight.

[Natorgator]

Supply is down, but it's mostly artificial cause of everyone making runs on the gas stations. Depending on the station and what time of day you go, plenty of them have gas. It's just that morons see a line at a station and get in line too, even if they don't need it. I filled up this morning with 87 and I was the only one there; then again it was 10AM and the station was out of 89 and 93.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The issues with supply are natural. The storms of the last month or two have caused significant declines in petroleum products in the US to the point that the minimum operating levels for the national oil distribution network are being tested. I doubt there wouldn't be issues without panic anyway, since spot shortages have happened before in some states even without such storms or rampant hoarding.

[J]

Supply is down, but it's mostly artificial cause of everyone making runs on the gas stations. Depending on the station and what time of day you go, plenty of them have gas. It's just that morons see a line at a station and get in line too, even if they don't need it. I filled up this morning with 87 and I was the only one there; then again it was 10AM and the station was out of 89 and 93.

I present the following excerpt from the latest DOE inventory report:

Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the Week Ending September 19, 2008

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 11.5 million barrels per day during the
week ending September 19, down more than 1.7 million barrels per day from the
previous week's average. Refineries operated at 66.7 percent of their operable
capacity last week. Gasoline production fell last week, averaging about 8.0
million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last
week, averaging nearly 3.3 million barrels per day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.1 million barrels per day last week, down
nearly 1.4 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the last four
weeks, crude oil imports have averaged 8.5 million barrels per day, about 1.8
million barrels per day below the same four-week period last year. Total motor
gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending
components) last week averaged 1.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel
imports averaged 199 thousand barrels per day last week.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 1.5 million barrels from the previous week. At
290.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the lower half of the
average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased
by 5.9 million barrels last week, and are below the lower boundary of the
average range. Both finished gasoline inventories and gasoline blending
components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories fell by
4.2 million barrels, and are in the lower half of the average range for this
time of year.

Total gasoline inventory is at 178.7 million barrels, this is not just below the average range, it's below what the DOE estimated as the minimum operable level (185M barrels); meaning how much inventory is needed to keep the system online without widespread products shortages. As for refinery utilization, it's never been this low, ever, and the same is true of gasoline inventories. It's never been this bad, not even after hurricanes Katrina and Rita put all the Gulf coast oil infrastructure offline in 2005. We're in uncharted waters right now.

[Broomstick]

So, um, any idea why so low?