San Antonio got a small taste yesterday of what will happen if a real crisis ever happens and it wasn't pretty. The word spread like wildfire yesterday that there was a gas shortage in San Antonio because of Hurricane Harvey. I received a dozen texts from friends and family telling me stations were running out of gas and I better fill up. Flash gas mobs formed. I counted 55 cars in line at one station as I tried to get around the traffic jam they created out on the road. On the radio it was reported that there were fist fights at the pumps and police had to restore order. People were filling up 5 gallon gas cans and even Home Depot buckets with gas after filling their vehicles. It was an unbelievable scene. The Mayor went on television to tell people to calm down and that there was no gas shortage, but they sucked ever gas station in the city dry. It was scary to see how little it takes for panic to spread.
It happened in Austin too. There were 20 car lines at stations as late as 10PM. My wife's car was on E and the low fuel light was on. She really needed gas. I filled up and was relieved. However, the people at the station were pumping for 10-20 seconds to top off their tanks. The person before me pumped 4 gallons. It was infuriating. You know how you know there is no real shortage? The stations that are out of gas at 8AM have gas at noon or if empty at 8PM have 20 car lines at 10PM. The supply has been affected but there is NO REAL SHORTAGE PEOPLE!
I remember interviewing a Railroad Commission official back about 1980 and at that time he said about 50 percent of the nation's fuel storage capacity is in the tanks of vehicles. When industry storage is brimming, there will be discounts and people will take advantage, filling up when they otherwise might wait. When prices jump, people hold off on a fillup. Personally, I wouldn't be averse to letting the free market take its course here. Panicked and want to fill up every storage container you own with gasoline? Fine. Pay $7 a gallon today. Or just be cool and wait until people relax and a normal price.
We're planning a long drive to see a football game this weekend. Fuel capacity in my car is about 400 miles ... enough for a round trip. I'll need about 4-6 gallons to top off the tank and the missus has texted me twice to do it. I'll comply ... but I feel like a jerk.
I think the shortage is real but the panic certainly exaggerated it. Supply and demand are closely balanced for refined fuels. The shutdown of multiple refineries caused a real shortage but as a couple gas stations ran out of fuel it resulted in hysteria.
My favorite quote from Star Trek is when Mr. Spock counseled; "in an insane land, a sane man must appear insane". Fill her up and don't feel guilty. I'm down to half a tank. I'd normally let it go to a quarter, but if I can find a station with gas, I'll be filling it up.
My understanding is SA gets it's gas from the Corpus refinery. It has been shut down for repairs causing the other refineries to produce more across the state which has cause an either shortage or a panic in several cities. Austin, Abilene, and places around the state. This actually started last Friday night. I went to 7 different stations on the north side of SA and ended up at the last gas station in Bulverde Tx. As I was getting gas there I spoke to two other people that said the other stations in Bulverde/Spring Branch was out. But by the next morning all those stations had gas again. But they started running out again this mid week. So I'm guessing the two things that caused this was the Corpus refinery being repaired and the panic from everyone. There is probably other refineries closed between Corpus all the way to the Louisiana state line.
Wow, no wonder there were fist fights. Hopefully those tipped over as he was driving home. How would you unload those trash cans? They must weigh hundreds of pounds each (if full).
On my drive home down 620 from 2222 to Bee Cave, every station had lines. Some were out in the street. The Texaco closest to my house had lines out in the street. I still had 1/4 tank so I went home. This morning at 630am I went to the Texaco, drove right up to the pump, and filled up as normal. Later I heard that the Texaco had run out of gas about 10pm last night, but a truck came a little after midnight and filled up their tanks so I could get gas this morning. Some shortage. Those people yesterday were suckers. I agree with Crockett, if the station had charged $7/gallon, I would have been fine with that.
Then I have to listen to the blathering of a friend on FB about how his local Shell jacked up their prices 40 cents/gal and that is just outrageous because they did not receive any gas the past few days so they did not pay the newer, higher prices for the gas they already have on hand. Clearly, he is not an economist.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41121245 There is an asteroid passing within 4.4 million miles of the earth. Everyone buy gas before it is too late!
The radio here in San Antonio just stated a total of 6 refineries are out of commission right that are being repaired.
http://m.mysanantonio.com/news/loca...everal-Exxon-Chevron-12163629.php?cmpid=artem San Antonio slipping into chaos. "At several gas stations, frustrated drivers have gotten out of their cars to yell at each other. At one, a woman physically planted herself in front of a car to prevent it from cutting the line while another woman screamed at a car that had managed to sneak in."
Another group of media cretins talking about things they have no clue about and are too damn lazy or stupid to spend five minutes researching. I invite any of you, who may think there is a shortage, to get off your *** and visit Kinder Morgan's loading racks in East Houston. This morning's aerial view showed over 200 tanker trucks waiting to load because only 6-8 can load at a time. I don't know if those loading racks in South SA got repaired from the fire or not. Corpus & Three Rivers refineries are coming back online today. They are relevant, but not major players. Your players: Motiva in Port Arthur is our largest refinery at over 600,00 barrels a day. It will be down a couple of days. Aramco won't let it be down for long. Keep in mind that a barrel is 42 gallons, and you might get 10-15 gallons of gas out of that. Exxon Baytown is our second largest refinery (largest for years) and is expanding to 650,000/day. It is operating. Exxon Beaumont is about 400,000/day and is shut down until the Neches river is open again, probably mid week. Valero Port Arthur is 400,000/day and is affected primarily by the Sabine channel access. BP (or whomever controls that piece of crap) in Texas City is always in some stage of repair and needs more, but should be and probably is operating. This refinery, along with Motiva, Baytown, Baton Rouge, Beaumont are the largest refineries in the country, unless Chalumette has expanded. Kinder Morgan is loading trucks as fast as possible, and Enterprise is keeping the flow coming. Our biggest problem is getting tankers up the Houston Ship Channel and Sabine Channel to the refineries. Will this accelerate a Texas offshore loading facility like the LOOP?
Gas stations all up and down 620 are out of gas. I really think the best thing would be for all stations to up their prices to, say, $3/gallon. This would discourage those that are just topping off and filling extra cans and such and let people who really need gas to get it. If that don't do it, go to $3.50. Paying a buck extra a gallon beats not having any.
Phil, I expect prices to edge up to close to $3 and start falling back sometime mid October or November. No reason other than media caused panic. A TimeWise Exxon station in Houston had regular at $2.25 on Tuesday, $2.35 Wednesday, $2.53 today. HELLO - BOB! This is same gasoline from same source and refined at same cost. It is called price gouging, but when you own the second most stations in Texas, you can do things like that regardless how chicken **** it may be.
I keep seeing media irresponsibility blamed for this. Then the newspapers I read and the television stations I watch have experts saying not to panic and there is plenty of gas... Americans look out for their individual interests. The system works because we are all pretty adept at it. Sometimes the collective gets screwed because we don't cooperate like ants.
FWIW, Kinder Morgan pushed 3 million gallons out in trucks in Houston today. That's 150,000 cars at 20 gallons per car. Tomorrow they will move another 3 million gallons.
Paid $2.59 a gallon on Saturday. That's up probably 50 cents a gallon in a week. Waited in an orderly 15-20 minute line. The Valero station where I got fuel had an employee directing traffic. The situation seems to be getting a little better, although the Sunday Express-News said 72% of San Antonio area stations were still out of fuel.
I waited in line Friday night behind a bunch of jerks filling every gas container they could get their hands on so I could top off my tank before departing a 360 mile round trip Saturday. Hey, maybe they were going to use it in jet skis ... and not hoard it in their garage until fuel is plentiful. Turns out every station I passed outside the metroplex had plenty of fuel and no lines. Looks like lots more stations had fuel Monday. I think the worry is over.
This has been but a tiny glimpse of what things would be like if something like our electric grid was tampered with or destroyed. The domino effect of chaos is surprisingly fast. I filled up my car at an empty station last Thursday, and woke up Friday morning with cars lined up back in to my neighborhood.
Another change in behavior ... speed on the highways. I first heard about this while on my SEA layover Thursday evening. "uh oh" ... I have a 105 mile drive to the airport. Left the house with 3/8 of a tank in my Jetta TDI intending to refuel on the way home. I had about 3/16 of a tank at the airport. When I roll at 60-62 mph, and am not pushing a 20 knot wind, my 06 Jetta will get 52-54 mpg. But 105 miles on 3/16 of a 14 gallon tank is gonna require eggshell operation (drive like there's an eggshell under the go pedal) and the Jetta will DEFINITELY need fuel at the house if there's none available enroute. I found a Quick Trip and a Shell had diesel in Burleson. Wasn't too much panicking, but while I was refueling (very slowly!), I did observe 2 or 3 driving around as there were gasoline pumps wrapped-up "out." Despite being full, I still set the cruise at 64. Didn't have too many blowing my doors off. Because of the slow pump, I was a bit concerned about trash in the fuel ... made certain I had tools and a replacement fuel filter in the trunk! Excellent points about the fragility of our system and the psyche of our populace.
There's an old B-Sci Fi movie from the late 50s or early 60s called "Panic In The Year Zero". I based this thread's title on that movie. It was one of a rash of movies produced back then about the breakdown of society caused by nuclear war. The premise of the movie was that, after just leaving Los Angeles on a family vacation (pulling a big trailer), a family pulls in for gas. The Dad looks back and sees a mushroom cloud over LA. After pumping, he goes in to pay for his gas and the store owner says "gas is now $20/gallon" (probably $200/ gal in today's money). Instead of a few dollars, he wants hundreds of dollars. I seem to remember that they have to pull a gun on the store owner to get out of the station. The family doesn't know what to do. Their home is presumably destroyed, so they travel on down the highways and get a first hand look at the breakdown of civilization. It scared me to death as a 10 year old. This little temporary disruption of the gas supply suggests to me that there is just an paper thin veneer that keeps some otherwise normal folks' caveman survival instincts from kicking in.
The price that the station paid for the gas they are selling has nothing to do with what they can charge. If you found a rare coin at a garage sale for $1, are you obliged to sell it to a collector for $1.10 even tho it is worth $1000? No, you are not. The coin is worth what someone else will pay, not what you already paid. This is why the system is not allowed to work as it should, because in my scenario above, the gas station that charges $3/gallon will be on the nightly news accused of price gouging. This is not true. Price gouging can only occur when the seller has the only supply and it is an emergency situation. Neither was true in your case. You can go to other stations to get gas, and this is not food or water that you need to live, either. The main problem here is people like you cry "price gouging" whenever you are asked (asked mind you, not ordered, as in Obamacare) to pay more than you desire to.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/consumer/os-hurricane-irma-gas-shortages-20170906-story.html Gasoline panic has begun in Florida.
People are stupid. It's just that simple. Despite the truth about the situation being everywhere, people still decided to take actions that caused the very problem they were trying to avoid. Meanwhile the people who actually needed it got the shaft. Wouldn't mind if someone would light a cigarette for selfish ******** like that guy.
