No gas shortage here, but some drivers rush to pumps

The hacking of the Colonial Pipeline has had no effect of fuel supplies beyond some panic-buying at gasoline pumps, two area fuel suppliers say.
That was the message delivered by Gaubert Oil customer service lead Wayne Lancon and Hellenic Vice President Dean Duplantis, representing Rio Fuel & Supply. Rio Fuel & Supply is one of the businesses under Hellenic’s umbrella.
Both said their companies buy their fuel from refineries, and said there is no shortage of supply of fuel to them. It’s just been a matter of getting the gas to the pumps fast enough due to people buying gas in panic.
Duplantis said Wednesday afternoon things were getting better, however, and later Wednesday, ABC News reported the Colonial Pipeline was back online as of about 4 p.m. The problem began after the pipeline was hacked this past weekend, according to Yahoo News.
“Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” Colonial Pipeline said in a statement to ABC News. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.”
Rio Fuel & Supply provides gasoline for five gas stations: in Patterson, Berwick and Pierre Part, and two in Morgan City.
Lancon said Gaubert Oil provides gas for several stations in the Morgan City area. They also provide St. Mary Parish supply as well as individual businesses.
He said that there have been three-hour waits at the Marathon refinery in Garyville to secure the fuel because other companies that normally get their fuel from the Colonial Pipeline are sending trucks to the refinery.
The Marathon refinery is one of three that Lancon listed that the company uses.
At the pump, the panic buying was ongoing Wednesday.
“In our area, there’s no shortage of product,” Lancon said. “It’s available. It’s just a matter of trying to keep up with getting it to the site.”
Duplantis said that as of Wednesday afternoon, Exxon Mobil had three times the supply that Rio Fuel would need.
“And we’re still running out (at gas stations), because people are buying in panic, putting in drums and containers,” he said. It’s a little odd. It’s crazy.”
Duplantis said the service station ran out of gas Tuesday evening at his Patterson location, ran out of gas Wednesday morning at its location on La. 182 in Morgan City and the gas supply was exhausted by lunch time Wednesday at its Victor II location, also in Morgan City. He said when the truck arrived to refuel in Berwick, there were 150 gallons remaining.
“I have fuel everywhere now, but we’ll probably run out again tomorrow if it doesn’t slow down,” Duplantis said Wednesday of the panic buying.
He said typically, he has to refill gas every two or three days at service stations. Since Tuesday and continuing Wednesday, more gas has been required daily.
“I’m having to split loads just to keep from running out,” Duplantis said. However, he noted things are starting to improve.
While the pipeline has been restarted, it will not immediately solve all of the problems, Yahoo News, citing AAA, said. For the fuel to travel from Texas to New York, it takes two to nearly three weeks.
The pipeline extends from Texas to New York and provides 45% of the East Coast’s fuel, Yahoo News reported.
Lancon said the pipeline carries gas from refineries in Texas, Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast.
“When you get past Florida, into Georgia and up the East Coast is where the refineries are not at,” he said.
The East Coast, Duplantis said, is where the problems are.
“There’s a whole bunch of terminals along the East Coast that the pipeline runs to that they’re down to 50%, so those are real outages,” he said. “Those people are only getting half of what they use. I can get three times of what I need, but I can’t get it fast enough, but it is slowing down. So it’s going to fix itself here (in) a day or two.”
The pipeline problem came when the industry already was facing issues trying to find qualified drivers to haul gas, and the effects of the pandemic prompted early retirements, Yahoo News reported.
Lancon said Gaubert Oil could probably hire about 12 drivers right now but can’t find qualified workers.
Lancon said he doesn’t know whether the shortage is related to stimulus or unemployment benefits or another reason.
However, he said it was something that was an issue prior to the pandemic and has gotten worse since.
“There’s just not a lot of qualified people out there anymore,” Lancon said. “Insurance regulations make you hire somebody over 25 with experience and you have to have a spotless record when you’re hauling gasoline.”
Patrick De Haan, Gas Buddy head of petroleum analysis, told Yahoo Money that a 40% dip in commercial driver’s license training classes was experienced a year ago.
“According to some in the trucking industry, 20% of schools are still closed,” De Haan told Yahoo Money.
Duplantis said that the pandemic hurt trucking aspect of the industry because drivers are paid per load, and during the pandemic, buying dropped.
You didn’t need the product, so they found other employment,” he said.
Locally, truck driving problems were made worse by the pipeline shutdown. Lancon said workers only are able to work 12 hour days.
“So if he spends six hours waiting in line at the plant, he’s only got six hours to drive and deliver product, so he might get two loads out,” Lancon said.
Duplantis said Rio Fuel has two drivers and contracts others. Even those contractors, though, don’t have the drivers that they use to.
On top of the demand for gas in recent days, he said that May is typically their busiest month of the year.