GREENSBORO, N.C. — Problems at the pump continue, nine days after a temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. As of Monday, more than half of gas stations in North Carolina about 2,800 - don't have fuel. That's better than the more than 4,000 that were out of gas last Thursday.
"Things are slowly improving. Expect more recovery this week. By Memorial Day, things should be actually improved enough where it shouldn't be much of a headache," Patrick DeHaan, the Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, said. "There will still be some stations without fuel on Memorial Day."
The problem isn't a lack of gas - it's getting enough gas to stations. Tanker trucks are lining up to get fuel but only a few trucks can fill up at once. DeHaan said the shortage at the pump isn't due to the pipeline shutdown completely.
"The Colonial Pipeline was the attention-getter, but the real issue that made this far worse and far longer was the fact that Americans were putting gasoline in Tupperware and in plastic bags," DeHann said. "I mean, even with the Colonial Pipeline operating this whole time, there would be no way for stations to keep up with this level of demand, no way, in a perfect world. So that's the focus, is that the panic-buying made the situation much, much worse than it would've been."
As for gas prices, DeHaan said North Carolina was the epicenter for increases. Prices jumped 20 cents a gallon in one week. He thinks costs will trickle back down, but he said they'll remain high as we enter the summer driving season and the oil industry recovers from the pandemic's financial blow.