Late shipment means short supply of gas locally

www.pilotonline.com By MICHAEL DAVIS, The Virginian-Pilot © February 19, 2003 Last updated 9:15 PM Feb. 18

A delayed shipment caused some Hampton Roads filling stations to run short of gasoline over the weekend, according to those in the business.

The gas arrived early Tuesday, but not before creating headaches for area wholesalers.

Supply was very, very short everywhere,'' said Corey Russell, vice president of wholesaler Supreme Petroleum Inc. in Suffolk. It was kind of a pain.''

Officials at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s headquarters in Irving, Texas, did not return telephone calls for comment Tuesday. The company's regional office in Fairfax was closed due to bad weather.

But distributors and dealers were told that Exxon Mobil's fuel terminal in Chesapeake ran out of gas Friday night after an inbound barge was delayed by bad weather.

The shortfall at the terminal -- one of the region's biggest suppliers of fuel -- forced wholesalers to go elsewhere. That demand, in turn, depleted supplies around the area.

Distributors scrambled to make their deliveries. Supreme, for instance, had to send trucks to Giant Industries Inc.'s Yorktown refinery, formerly owned by BP, to pick up gas.

Some frustrated Exxon dealers said they ran out of gas entirely over the weekend.

The biggest thing is customer confidence,'' said Pete White, owner of B & B Exxon in Ghent. We didn't expect it. I looked like an idiot.''

But wholesalers said similar supply disruptions happen occasionally.

It's not unusual,'' said Tim Hampton, vice president of wholesale for Sentry Services in Norfolk. We've seen it throughout the years.''

The shortage was evidently not related to tensions in the Middle East. But a 79-day oil workers' strike in Venezuela and unseasonably cold weather in the Northeast, which compels refineries to make heating oil instead of gas, have undercut supplies and driven up prices.

AAA says that self-serve regular unleaded averaged $1.59 a gallon in Hampton Roads Tuesday, up 60 percent from a year earlier.

Though Venezuelan output appears to be on the rebound, uncertainty over military action in Iraq has helped drive crude oil prices to 29-month highs of $37 a barrel.

The federal Energy Information Administration said earlier this month that ``world oil markets will likely remain tight through most of 2003.''

But Hampton Roads wholesalers said that large shortages are extremely unlikely.

``I'm confident that we could take care of our commitments,'' Hampton said.

Reach Michael Davis at 446-2599 or midavis@pilotonline.com