Gas Supplies Tight; Bush Asks Drivers to Conserve

Drivers wait for a gas station to open in Moss Point, Miss. Pumps ran dry in the Washington region. (By Christy Pritchett -- Associated Press)

But oil analysts and company officials said they expected an increase in imports of gasoline from Europe within two weeks. That could help to bring down prices and ease supply disruptions, they said.

Before the hurricane, U.S. refiners could turn 17 million barrels of oil a day into gasoline and other products. The storm has reduced that capacity by 1.8 million barrels a day, or nearly 11 percent, according to the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. Some other refineries, which were not damaged by the storm, are operating below capacity because of limited crude oil supplies.

Eight U.S. refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline were offline because of storm damage, the Energy Department said yesterday. Two other refineries that produce petrochemicals were out of service.

Oil companies are struggling to produce and deliver gasoline to stations. "It's an issue of getting fuel to the right place at the right time," said Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP PLC. "There has been this rippling effect from the storm. It's going to take a while for these ripples to flatten out."

Some refiners have been scrambling to get crude oil because of disruptions to production in the Gulf of Mexico. Output has slid by some 90 percent in the Gulf, amounting to a loss of about 1.4 million barrels a day, according to the Minerals Management Service.

The Energy Department yesterday approved three loans of crude oil from the 700 million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The department agreed to provide 6 million barrels of oil to Exxon Mobil Corp., 1 million barrels to Placid Refining Co. and 1.5 million barrels to Valero Energy Corp. Also yesterday, the Bush administration relaxed federal rules to allow foreign oil tankers to transport oil from one U.S. port to another. Industry officials said that would help move supplies to areas that need them.

The Bush administration has also relaxed environmental regulations requiring some areas to use special summertime gasoline blends designed to reduce pollution. Oil industry officials said relaxing that rule allowed supplies to be sent to Atlanta yesterday, relieving rapidly rising prices.

In Alexandria, Ali Rana, the gas station manager at Olde Town Car Care Shell, said he could run out of gas by the end of the month. He was informed by his supplier that he would receive enough to sell only 1,700 gallons per day, and he usually sells about 2,200. "If we're out of gas, we cannot get any more," he said, adding that he plans to "hope and pray and see what happens."

Cars were lined up three-deep at all 10 pumps at a BP station on Route 28 in Centreville yesterday, and cashier Singh Darshan said the station had to shut down twice since Wednesday night because gas shipments were late. Regular customers said that the station tended to be crowded because the prices are usually relatively low -- $2.81, $2.91 and $2.99 yesterday -- but that they never see lines.

The station closed all its pumps from 11:30 p.m. Wednesday until 2 a.m. yesterday and then half of its pumps for two hours yesterday afternoon. In both cases, the supply trucks were late.

Darshan said gas prices had not changed between Wednesday and Thursday but had gone up 20 cents between Monday and Tuesday and 7 cents between Tuesday and Wednesday.

At the Shell station on Georgia Avenue and Upsher Street NW, customer Charlene Evans said she was surprised by what she found: A handwritten note on every pump indicated that the station was out of regular and super grades, leaving only the most expensive premium grade. But Evans said she was able to fill up with the midgrade super for $2.89 a gallon. Other customers reported being able to fill up their cars with regular gasoline, as well.