LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As lines form at gas stations across the Southeast due to a shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, people in Kentuckiana are starting to realize they'll also need patience and extra pennies at the pump.
But experts say any shortages in the greater Louisville area are not because of lack of supply, but rather panicked buying.
"There is really no cause for concern here," said Hillary Stevenson, the Louisville-based director of oil markets and business development for Wood Mackenzie, an energy information company.
Stevenson said the greater Louisville area's gasoline supply comes from Marathon Petroleum refineries in Kentucky and in Illinois. It is not delivered via the Colonial Pipeline, she said, so there is disruption to the normal supply.
The closest area affected by the pipeline is perhaps Nashville, she said.
Still, some gas stations in Louisville were running low Wednesday amid a surge in buying.
Wendy Goetz said she tried three locations before finding gas at the Circle K/Shell station near the University of Louisville. The first station didn't have gas, she said, and the second was only a minimart and didn't have pumps. Even the Circle K/Shell only had premium gas left.
"I started pumping, went inside to get a donut and came back out, and it said 72 cents had filled into my tank," Goetz said. "Now I've gotta do premium."
Goetz was traveling through Louisville for work on her way back to Ohio and said she's worried she'll run into more issues during her travels.
At a pump nearby, Jim Bidwell also struggled to find what he was looking for. He was trying to fill his truck up with regular-grade fuel to help a friend transport a refrigerator.
Due to the higher price, Bidwell said he opted to only get $5 worth of premium fuel.
"It does worry," Bidwell said. "If people can't get to work because they can't afford the gas, then this is just going to cause us to go out of another recession."
Patrick De Haan, an analyst with GasBuddy, agreed that the issue is demand, not a supply disruption.
"Motorist Monday, for example: U.S. gasoline demand was up 20%," De Haan said. "In some of these hard-hit states, it was up 40%. There's just no way stations can keep up."
While there is still plenty of supply locally to go around, De Haan said the problem occurs when people try to stockpile or fill up more frequently than usual, because tankers can't keep up with refueling so many stations at one time.
"Where tanker trucks go, what we call a rack, has only a finite amount of trucking bays," De Haan said. "It can only fill a certain amount of tankers at once; that's the chokepoint."
Although some people, like Bidwell, are worried about the already high prices, De Haan said the pipeline issue shouldn't cause a drastic increase at the pump.
"You don't have to go out and fill out, because prices aren't going to spike. They may go up a couple cents, but it's not like a race against time, and there's not a massive spike coming down the chain and that's because this infrastructure does not produce gasoline," he said. "If there was a refinery issue, then yeah, prices may go up, but this is a pipeline issue. It does not produce gasoline; it delivers gasoline."
Stevenson, of Wood Mackenzie, agreed.
"I would not suggest that anyone in the Kentuckiana area needs to rush out and fill gasoline," she said. "Just fill up whenever you need to fill up, like you normally do."
If people continue with business as usual, De Haan said Kentuckiana should be able to avoid any shortage issues.
"There's no problems that I foresee in Kentucky, but, again, because people are hoarding, and it's impossible to predict what they'll do," De Haan said. "It's really difficult to know if that will develop; I would hope not. There's really no reason for it. If you need gas, get it. There's only going to be a problem if people decide they need 100 extra gallons."
There have been reports of shortages at multiple Thorntons locations around Kentuckiana, Thorntons representatives told WDRB News there is not an issue with their fuel reserve and tankers have actively been refueling stations. Signs posted Wednesday at some Thorntons read, "Temporarily out of fuel."
To help find locations with gas nearby, GasBuddy launched an online tracker. Stations with all gas types are in green, limited options in yellow and out of gas are marked in red.
Reporter Chris Otts contributed to this story. Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
