State’s Gasoline Market Gets Some Early Good News

Keith M. Phaneuf

©The Connecticut Mirror

Though many Connecticut gasoline stations remained without electric power in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the state’s fuel market already is better off than it was one year ago.

The state’s principal fuel importing terminal, located in New Haven Harbor, reported Tuesday morning that it expected limited truck loading operations would begin later in the day.

Also Tuesday, the head of one of the state’s two largest gasoline retailers’ associations said that government waivers that allowed truckers to work longer hours and carry heavier loads also should help Connecticut’s fuel market bounce back more quickly than it did after last year’s storms.

The terminal run by Magellan Midstream Partners of Tulsa, Okla., was largely shut down for three days after the October 29, 2011, nor’easter that brought near-hurricane force winds and dumped as much as two feet of snow on much of Connecticut, causing flooding and widespread outages.

Magellan, which operates three terminals on the East Coast, suspended all operations Monday at its facilities in New Haven and Wilmington, Del., while its terminal in Richmond, Va., operated normally.

“As of this morning, all Magellan employees in the region are accounted for and safe,” company spokesman Bruce Heine wrote in a statement sent by e-mail early Tuesday.

“We have completed a preliminary assessment of our New Haven and Wilmington facilities and we are in the process of implementing our reactivation plan,” Heine added. “We expect to resume truck loading operations at our Wilmington terminal later today. We also anticipate that we will begin limited truck loading operations at New Haven later today.”

Heine said Monday that Magellan had begun implementing its hurricane preparedness plan late last week at its New Haven terminal, which has a maximum tank storage capacity of 4 million barrels.

The New Haven terminal is crucial not only for its size, but also because it supplies a fuel pipeline that runs north through central Connecticut, supplying key points in Rocky Hill, East Hartford, at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks and into Springfield, Mass.

Contamination tied to flooding had stalled operations at the New Haven terminal last year, and Michael Fox, executive director of the Stamford-based Gasoline and Automotive Dealers Association of America, said reopening the terminal Tuesday — even in a limited capacity — is good news.

Fox, whose group represents more than a third of Connecticut’s nearly 1,400 licensed gasoline stations, said it is too soon to say how many stations statewide are unable to serve motorists.

“It’s kind of freakish,” Fox said Tuesday morning. “I have guys here with gas, but no power, and I have some right nearby with power, but no gas.”

Though Governor Dannel P. Malloy lifted the bans he imposed Monday on highway travel, Fox said that business closings and the power outages should keep demand at most gasoline stations down by at least 50 percent — assuming consumers follow trends set by past storms of similar intensity and damage.

On the other hand, though, demand for fuel was up about 30 percent over normal levels over the past weekend as motorists sought to top off their vehicles before Hurricane Sandy hit.

Fox said state officials and Washington took important steps this week to help the fuel market get back on its feet.

Connecticut waived restrictions on how long truckers can be on the road, enabling them to reach more customers each day. And a federal waiver on weight limits on fuel delivering trucks also will make it easier to assist more stations each day.

The time waiver was sought by the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, which represents about 600 gasoline distributors, home heating oil dealers, and gasoline stations.

The ICPA’s executive director, Eugene A. Guilford, Jr, said his office sought permission to extend the maximum hours certain types of drivers can remain on the road in one day from 11 to 13.

This seemingly modest increase, which Malloy’s administration approved on Friday, means gasoline distributors have a much wider range of options to choose when purchasing fuel for local stations.

(This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics, and public policy in the state.)