Day five into North Dakota posting the top average gas prices in the lower 48 states, and some small relief may be in sight: Extra fuel came through the pipeline terminal in Fargo, and available fuel was found in Canada.

An "irregular shipment"of 20,000 barrels of fuel was delivered to Fargo's Magellan Pipeline Terminal yesterday, said Ryan Bernstein, general counsel for the governor's office.

The governor's office has also been seeking a waiver with the Environmental Protection Agency to allow marketers to quickly access fuel from Canada. The fuel would normally not meet standards for the "summer blend"marketers should be using right now; the Canadian-blended fuel would have been OK to use by mid-September.

In trying to secure a waiver so marketers could access and use the fuel before Sept. 16, an extra 900,000 gallons of useable, summer-blended fuel was found in Gretna, Manitoba, Bernstein said.

That fuel is available to marketers immediately.

The governor's office had been working with the industry, calling refineries and pipeline authorities, and encouraging them to send more product to what seems to be nearly dry North Dakota fuel terminals. They have also extended hours of service to make sure distributors can get the product to North Dakota.

"The governor has worked very hard to contact refineries and the pipelines, to have them move more product up here, to keep supply up and to help us keep the prices down,"Bernstein said.

Bernstein said they will continue to seek a waiver of the summer-blended fuel, which could open up access to an extra 450,000 gallons.

"If the waiver could be secured, it frees up a minimal amount of product,"said Mike Rud with the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers' Association. "It'll free up about a half-million gallons of product. That's a half-million gallons of product that's not available."

Marketers and regional experts point to shortages as the reason why North Dakota fuel prices exceed all others in the continental United States. Terminals across the state have consistently dried up, causing marketers to head out of state in search of fuel.

"Again, the main thing you need to understand, whatever the price is, our marketers are trying to do all they can to keep things down,"Rud said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)