Fuel shortages worsen on sixth day

[itsnotoutthere]

Fuel shortages worsened in the southeastern United States on Wednesday, as the shutdown of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network entered its sixth day and gasoline stations ran out of supply in some cities.

A ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline last week halted 2.5 million barrels per day of fuel shipments in the most disruptive cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. The pipeline stretches 5,500 miles (8,850 km) from U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries to consumers in Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states.

In Washington, D.C., top Biden administration officials met late Tuesday to discuss the incident and were considering ways to alleviate gasoline supply shortages, the White House said. Congressional committee members have asked that a White House interagency task force provide a formal briefing to discuss the federal response to the cyberattack.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/top-us-fuel-pipeline-edges-toward-reopening-gasoline-shortages-worsen-2021-05-12/

 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by itsnotoutthere

[Robotic Jew]

They kept saying not to panic on the news so of course the first thing most people did was panic. 

[+OverSword]

I think the smart move right now would be to go buy as much toilet paper as you can. 

[Robotic Jew]

2 minutes ago, OverSword said:

I think the smart move right now would be to go buy as much toilet paper as you can. 

I did that and put in my gas tank.

[spartan max2]

I hope this panic buying dosent spread.

[+Desertrat56]

This reminds me of the 70's when there was a problem between the U.S. and OPEC, and in 2011 after the twin towers were taken out.   Just breathe, don't let your tank get less than 1/2 empty, etc.   I hope everything is "back to normal" soon.  And you can always move west of the Mississippi, just make sure you live at least 100 miles away from a refinery.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Desertrat56

[Tatetopa]

1 minute ago, Desertrat56 said:

This reminds me of the 70's when there was a problem between the U.S. and OPEC, and in 2011 after the twin towers were taken out.   Just breathe, don't let your tank get less than 1/2 empty, etc.   I hope everything is "back to normal" soon.

You probably remember you could only buy gas on even or odd days based on your license plate.

[+Desertrat56]

11 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

You probably remember you could only buy gas on even or odd days based on your license plate.

Yep.  I was a kid then but when I started driving gas was about 33 cents a gallon and a year later it was over $3.00 a gallon.  There have been times in the 80's when El Paso and southern NM had stations with gas wars and we could get gas for .99 or .98 a gallon if we went to the state border.   At that time in Las Cruces it was about 1.20 a gallon and in El Paso about 1.30 a gallon.   And since then it has gone up over 3.50 a gallon and down to 1.89 a gallon.   The gas prices are dependent on a very complex system that includes politics.

[Jon the frog]

panic fill your tank with olive oil in your diesel engine truck, lol ! Buy vodka for your car !!! gogo!

Edited May 12, 2021 by Jon the frog

[+Desertrat56]

I just checked and the gas prices that we have had in New Mexico for the last month (prices started rising slowly in February and stopped last month) are the prices people are quoting as being raised just last week from 2.29 to 2.89 for regular and 2.69 to 3.50 for premium.   So you all in Texas and the east got a few extra weeks of low prices.  That leads me to believe that something else is going on and the hack is just an excuse to get the prices back up east of the Mississippi.  I have no idea why the prices (according to someone in Texas) jumped like they did last week.  Maybe someone else in Texas can mention if this was just in the Dallas area or the whole state.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Desertrat56

[Robotic Jew]

1 hour ago, Desertrat56 said:

I just checked and the gas prices that we have had in New Mexico for the last month (prices started rising slowly in February and stopped last month) are the prices people are quoting as being raised just last week from 2.29 to 2.89 for regular and 2.69 to 3.50 for premium.   So you all in Texas and the east got a few extra weeks of low prices.  That leads me to believe that something else is going on and the hack is just an excuse to get the prices back up east of the Mississippi.  I have no idea why the prices (according to someone in Texas) jumped like they did last week.  Maybe someone else in Texas can mention if this was just in the Dallas area or the whole state.

I think it's because demand is going back up now that most states are lifting restrictions and a lot of companies(around me anyway) are starting to have people return to the office. Gas here in Georgia has been around 2.69 for regular for a few weeks now in my area(I live out in the "country")

[acidhead]

[aztek]

no gas lines, nor any shortages here, gas is available at every station here, filled up yesterday 3.05 a gal for regular

Edited May 12, 2021 by aztek

[acidhead]

 

 

[+and-then]

4 hours ago, OverSword said:

I think the smart move right now would be to go buy as much toilet paper as you can. 

I was thinking more along the lines of using special forces to find, fix, and kill the perps.  I'm guessing that would tend to stop these kinds of money making ventures.

[+Desertrat56]

47 minutes ago, Robotic Jew said:

I think it's because demand is going back up now that most states are lifting restrictions and a lot of companies(around me anyway) are starting to have people return to the office. Gas here in Georgia has been around 2.69 for regular for a few weeks now in my area(I live out in the "country")

Don't gas prices go up every summer when people travel more?   (except 2020 when no one was supposed to be traveling).

[glorybebe]

As soon as I saw the hack, I went to fill up.  Over night we went from 129.9 per litter, it went up to 139.9 and we are in Canada!  Any excuse to bump up prices

[+Desertrat56]

8 minutes ago, glorybebe said:

As soon as I saw the hack, I went to fill up.  Over night we went from 129.9 per litter, it went up to 139.9 and we are in Canada!  Any excuse to bump up prices

Does the pipeline go to Canada?   If not, then I was right, something else is going on and the hack is just an excuse.

[glorybebe]

1 hour ago, Desertrat56 said:

Does the pipeline go to Canada?   If not, then I was right, something else is going on and the hack is just an excuse.

No, it's all relative.   People in the US don't realize how closely our economies are connected.  Any gas/oil related issues in the US reflects on our pricing.

[+Desertrat56]

Just now, glorybebe said:

No, it's all relative.   People in the US don't realize how closely our economies are connected.  Any gas/oil related issues in the US reflects on our pricing.

I think a lot of people complaining don't realize the difference you all pay compared to what we pay.  I think it takes almost 2.5 liters to make a gallon (did I calculate that correctly?)  And your price per liter is way higher than our price per gallon.   The thing is, the oil industry is run outside of country lines in a lot of ways.   The prices are set based on things that have nothing or little to do with what country you are in.

[Gromdor]

4 hours ago, acidhead said:

The sad thing is that this is a private company and the attack was made by Russians.  We can't just take it over and make it government owner, managed, and protected.  I do think we will see a new round of regulations dictating the level of cyber security the companies must have for the sake of the nation. (gas prices)  But is it really the governments place to bail out this company because it failed in securing itself and it's ability to deliver it's product?  Or should we let the free market and capitalism settle this?

[+Desertrat56]

24 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

The sad thing is that this is a private company and the attack was made by Russians.  We can't just take it over and make it government owner, managed, and protected.  I do think we will see a new round of regulations dictating the level of cyber security the companies must have for the sake of the nation. (gas prices)  But is it really the governments place to bail out this company because it failed in securing itself and it's ability to deliver it's product?  Or should we let the free market and capitalism settle this?

The hackers were not Russian, where did you get that?   I remember one headline that said the hackers were not Russian.  

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/05/12/the-colonial-pipeline-hackers-are-one-of-the-savviest-criminal-startups-in-a-370-million-ransomware-game/?sh=4ad65b657595

[Buzz_Light_Year]

28 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

But is it really the governments place to bail out this company because it failed in securing itself and it's ability to deliver it's product?  Or should we let the free market and capitalism settle this?

Depends on how the government wants to address the issue. They could decide to classify it as critical infrastructure and in the interest of National Security step in. I'm sure the governments security sleuths are already onsite helping with the issue.

[Gromdor]

6 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

The hackers were not Russian, where did you get that?   I remember one headline that said the hackers were not Russian.  

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/05/12/the-colonial-pipeline-hackers-are-one-of-the-savviest-criminal-startups-in-a-370-million-ransomware-game/?sh=4ad65b657595

It was in Newsweek: What is DarkSide? Russia-Linked Hacker Group Behind Colonial Pipeline Shutdown (newsweek.com)

Basically, they have a infrastructure and the ransomware trail led to Russia.

[Gromdor]

1 minute ago, Buzz_Light_Year said:

Depends on how the government wants to address the issue. They could decide to classify it as critical infrastructure and in the interest of National Security step in. I'm sure the governments security sleuths are already onsite helping with the issue.

Yeah, I am kind of curious at what the end result will be.  There has been a lot of political pressure for Biden to take care of it, so now he has the political capital to take care of the issue in some form.  This is also the second issue we had with gas lines/transmission with the other being the Texas freeze.  But I do cringe whenever business issues get tossed over into the political court.  The end result often has nothing to do with the original problem at all.