Southeast US retail fuel delivery challenge grows

Fuel retailers in the US southeast are facing a second day of dwindling supply and strained delivery logistics as consumers continue to fill up as Colonial Pipeline's main gasoline and diesel lines remains shut for a sixth day.

"We don't have a ‘supply' problem, we have a ‘delivery' problem exacerbated by panic buying," Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama president Bart Fletcher said. Overall product availability in the state was still solid, he said.

Fuel supplies were adequate at terminals in Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, according to David Alexander, president of fuel distributor JT Alexander & Son in a televised interview, but 40pc of the locations served by the company were without fuel.

"We're having to take tankers and go to multiple locations to get our customers fuel," Alexander said. "That pipe's got to get going in the next day or two or we will be in a mess,"

Oklahoma-based Love's Travel Stops said 22 of its locations in the southeastern US were temporarily out of gasoline, with another eight sites without diesel fuel in stock. The company listed 15 locations in Georgia, 12 travel centers in Virginia, 10 sites in South Carolina and another eight locations in North Carolina at-risk of seeing fuel outages.

Tennessee-based Pilot Flying J, with more than 750 locations in 44 states, said 17 of its locations had no diesel fuel, five sites had no gasoline available, while another three of its sites had no gasoline or diesel.

Fuel store operator RaceTrac, which more than 750 locations in five southern states, continued to say today that temporary fuel outages were occurring at locations in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Colonial Pipeline said yesterday the company had begun a phased recovery from a ransomware attack that started last week. A restart decision was expected today.

Regulators have waived a number of fuel and transport rules to help ease supply constraints, including allowing for larger fuel shipments by truck and allowing for longer driver shifts.

By Jason Metko