Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - No fuel shortages expected

No fuel shortages expected

May 07, 2008 - 04:05:24 CDT

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press Writer

Fuel - albeit costly - should be in sufficient supply this summer in North Dakota, industry officials say.

Fuel shortages last summer forced North Dakotans to pay among the highest prices in the nation for gasoline and diesel. Energy officials said as many as eight nationwide refinery outages - caused by fires, floods, repairs and maintenance - combined with a record harvest for some crops to pinch fuel supplies in North Dakota and elsewhere.

"Certainly, last year was a perfect storm for all fuel products," said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. "There were supply disruptions, and what resulted was that it was tough to find product."

It should be easier this year, he said.

"There is more refinery capacity now in the region," Ness said. "Barring any unforeseen situation, there should be more supply."

Magellan Midstream Partners LP, which runs a network of pipelines and distribution terminals, said a lightning strike at one refinery and maintenance at other refineries disrupted the supply last year. Magellan's North Dakota terminals are in West Fargo and Grand Forks.

Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine said supplies did not match the demand last year and the company worked with shippers to set priorities.

"We're not envisioning that type of a problem this year," he said.

That's good news to Woody Wuitschick, who runs a service station in Harvey, a town of about 2,000 people in central North Dakota. He said his station's 1,500-gallon fuel tank nearly ran dry at least twice last summer.

"So far, I haven't had any problems with supply this year," Wuitschick said Tuesday. "But I did have to raise my prices a dime today to $3.67, the highest price ever."

Tight supplies last year in North Dakota drove Gov. John Hoeven to grant several extensions of the 15-hour work day for commercial truckers hauling fuel. The federal Environmental Protection Agency agreed to allow North Dakota fuel dealers to import Canadian gasoline earlier than usual, at Hoeven's request.

Hoeven said recently completed and planned expansion projects in Montana, Minnesota, South Dakota and at Tesoro Corp.'s refinery at Mandan - the state's sole oil refinery - will help curb fuel supply problems. Refinery projects also are being explored in North Dakota, including one in Williston and on the Fort Berthold reservation.

"In the long term, we need to look at building supply," Hoeven said. "In the short term, we need regulation in the market to keep speculation from driving up the price of crude."

The supply crunch and the resulting high fuel prices last year also prompted Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to call on the federal Energy Department to monitor oil refinery outages and watch for a potential disruption of supplies. The agency agreed to do so because antitrust laws forbid companies to share information on planned refinery shutdowns with each other.

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Comments

north dakota wrote on May 10, 2008 8:58 AM:

" low gas prices to 1.99 per gallon. "

No way wrote on May 7, 2008 4:14 PM:

" The really big picture, do we really want our state gov. to operate a refinery? Oil companies are having record profits, but this isn't in the refining end of things. If this was economical, I guarrenttee you that private industry would be building refineries. "

dave wrote on May 7, 2008 2:01 PM:

" Alot of infrastructure (pipelines etc.) has to be in place before you can even think of building a refinery.

Don't even think of the railroad or truckers because they can't even get the grain to market.

Imagine the cost. "

dave wrote on May 7, 2008 1:58 PM:

" A refinery doesn't happen overnight......there are more roadblocks than you care to imagine and all of our fine state politicians are trying to politicize that very idea.

It won't happen.... "

James wrote on May 7, 2008 12:16 PM:

" I do not know what you do for a living but it is not building refineries. It takes at a minimum eight years just to get the go ahead from the federal government. In those eight years they need environmental impact studies, a huge water supply (could be a problem in North Dakota), and getting the tree hugging hippies off your front lawn. They do not want the refineries because the end product is hurting the environment. Well I better never see anyone of those eco freaks driving or using electricity. "

haas wrote on May 7, 2008 11:44 AM:

" I would second the motion for this! "

not just a refinery wrote on May 7, 2008 11:26 AM:

" Use some of that surplus tax money to create a whole oil industry from drilling the rigs to prodicing the gas. all state owned. Get rid of all the other in between companies that charge huge amounts of money. "

snoller wrote on May 7, 2008 9:06 AM:

" Governor John Hoeven should request the state to have a State Owned Refinery. We have a State owned Bank, State Owned Mill. Just think, borrow the money from the bank, build the refinery close to the oil. This would create more jobs and have millions and millions in profit. The oil is here in North Dakota, Let's get the ball rolling, by 2010 we could be fully operational. "

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