Equipment doesn't run when the diesel inside it gels up to the consistency of clumpy wax.

Severe cold weather is creating a prolonged call for higher grade diesel, and suppliers are having difficulty keeping up with demand.

Suppliers who have run out of No. 1 diesel have done so for relatively short periods of time. None enjoy having to wrap a plastic bag around the pump handle, the universal sign for "this pump not available," especially when it means the difference between an engine starting and one that won't turn over.

Cy Fix, general manager for Bismarck-Mandan Cenex stores, said one of their stations briefly ran dry a week ago and he's heard of plenty of others.

Fix has customers like the Burleigh County road department and Super Valu's warehouse that can take on 3,000 gallons at a fill.

He spends a lot of time on the phone, looking for No. 1 from Laurel, Mont., to Grand Forks.

"We're just trying to keep our own going," he said.

A Minot pipeline terminal had 630,000 gallons available Christmas Day and it was gone the next day.

"We sucked 'em dry in 36 hours," Fix said.

Refineries are making as much No. 1 as they can, but all of them have cut back on production of that product after a long spell of warm winters when No. 2 worked just fine.

"Unless the weather breaks, we'll see this get worse," Fix said.

A call to the Cenex refinery in Laurel was not returned for this story.

Fuel station managers aren't easy to reach these short winter days either, but there are local reports of shortages.

A Watford City fuel store manager, asked about No. 1, said, "We can't get any," but deferred to his boss, who wasn't available.

A Bowman fuel store manager said his station has had shortages there, but didn't want to elaborate.

Diesel runs a lot of the world as we know it. Pickups, school buses, farm tractors, snow plows, semi trucks, heavy mining and construction equipment - the list is long and vital.

Mel Roth, owner of Tesoro in Hazen, said Monday afternoon he was temporarily out of dyed No. 1 diesel, specified for farm use only, but expected his shortage to be short- lived.

Roth said he gets an allocation from his supplier and is generally, like other retailers, "getting enough to get by."

Paul Doll, manager of the Hazen Cenex, said the situation has "been a challenge. You have to be at the right place at the right time."

He has enough for now - he was part of the big run at the Minot terminal last week. He bought up his 3,500-gallon allocation and then paid an additional 20 cents per gallon to get more.

Doll said affixing the penalty is the terminal's way of trying to spread the fuel among as many stations as possible, same as he's been doing by selling a half-and-half blend.

Back at the station, he was getting $2.70 for No. 2 and $2.99 for No. 1.

Ed Schaper, equipment and office operator for the Mercer County Road Department, said the county has some straight No. 1, and other tanks with blended diesels.

Mercer is a big county and can burn up 350 gallons of diesel a day when all its equipment is out blasting snow off long miles of pavement and gravel.

Schaper said he recently called one of the county's normal fuel dealers, that was out of No. 1, but was able to get some from another dealer.

Until temperatures moderate, farmers, equipment operators and others can expect sticky No. 2 diesel.

Dealers will do their best to get those engines fired up with No. 1, or a least a blend.

"We're hanging in there," Doll said. "Normally we haven't had this cold for so long."

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@;westriv.com.)