EDIT: 9:15pm EDT:
With the blog becoming the focus across the nation tonight, I am doing my part… or trying. Here’s what everyone can expect for tomorrow and the days ahead: Prices will likely rise for tomorrow in MOST areas. Here in the Midwest, we can expect at least 20-30cent differentials between now and tomorrow night. Some areas that are now paying less than $4/gal could see $4.35 or higher tomorrow. If you live in OH, PA, NY, WV, etc, you’ll be aided by East Coast refiners and pipelines that are doing well. Here’s a map. The more pink, the more of a jump you’ll see over the next week. The futher West the better. You’ll be away from pipeline issues and your crude oil will becoming in to a non-closed port like the oil for the Midwest. That also goes for those in the upper East Coast. However, EVERYONE will see prices rise.
We’ll likely see an increase at the pump tomorrow again… the main reason… IKE. He is shutting down one QUARTER of all United States gasoline production.
Hope that it doesn’t strengthen too much, and hope it goes more South!
Other than that, wholesale rack prices jumped 26-cents here tonight (the prices STATIONS pay).
You can bet tomorrow morning stations buying gas tonight will pass that price increase to you!
FILL UP NOW!
I just woke up and checked my email to find an email from Marathon about a special price change. They sent it at midnight and it was retroactive at 6pm (when the normal price went into effect).
They decreased the price between 8-11 cents. So, we ended up with about a 17 cent increase instead of 27. Which would put the Speedway restore price back to around $4.099.
I assume that they needed to adjust their price to what another brand moved to.
Sorry to give you bad information, but it was accurate at the time.
I forgot to say that if you look at the satilite view in Google maps you can clearly see the refineries in danger (look for lots of big round white tanks). They are saying that it will hit around Lake Jackson – Galveston, and the most damage will be to the right side of the eye.
The big refineries on the river in Port Arthur and Baumont are in big trouble if the storm keeps getting stronger and lands to the left of Galevston.
The only good news is that the winds are still barely over 100mph, hopefully they stay that way.
I didn’t look at the map close enough before I posted. The Texas City refineries are pretty much screwed (719,000 b/d between 3 refineries) I can’t imagine that they are high enough above water to be protected from storm surge.
Baytown is farther up they bay, but I don’t think that will help them much. That’s the biggest US refinery at 557,000 b/d (the second biggest is in Texas City).
But, I the refineries in Port Arthur (843,500 b/d between 3 refineries) and Beaumont (1 at 348,500) are still in danger.
Also, the LOOP might be the biggest pipeline for incoming crude, but the one in Houston (which could get damaged) is pretty big too.
I really don’t know what Speedway is waiting for. It’s not like people are going to be surprised if prices go up. Every pump in town has been lined up all day, so it isn’t a secret.
There is a slowing growing list of stations on Speedway.com at $3.999 (up to 6 out of 300 in MI), but I don’t know if that is from them moving or matching someone else. I didn’t think about it before, but when Marathon gave us the 8-11 cent decrease at Midnight, that made it so that Speedway had the option to move to $3.999 instead of being forced to go over $4.
With our without Speedway, I’m going to be forced to raise our prices to at least $3.999 very soon. If not, we are going to start running out of gas at several stores. I’m being told that the lines at the racks are very long, so its not like we can haul extra if we need it.
I wish some of these stupid radio stations would make a LITTLE bit of effort to find out if there is any truth at all to rumors people call them with, instead of making everyone panic. I’ve had 10 different people call me from different parts of the State because customers are telling them that gas in my town is at $5.299! Every single station has been either $3.899 or $3.959 all day. Who decides to make up stuff like that and call it into the radio station?
http://gaswatch.energy.gov/
Report your gas gougers to this website.