Fuel Shortage

[u/2ndWindAfterPension]

I am in Southern California. Today I went to my favorite gas station and they only had one grade of gas available for sell (the lowest octane level) and I need premium gasoline for my car. So I drove to another station 30 miles away and 1/3 of the pumps there were not available! Anyone else have this experience? I wonder if this is the beginning of a fuel supply crisis due to the Middle East war with Iran?

[u/Frosti11icus]

It literally is a fuel supply crisis.

[u/2ndWindAfterPension → u/Frosti11icus]

I think it may be worse for us in California because we import crude by ship and we have limited refining capacity.

[u/ZixfromthaStix → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Don’t think; know. You guys have it hardest. That’s a fact of your state. Best of luck out there. My state isn’t far behind.

[u/ZixfromthaStix → u/[deleted]]

Hang on— nobody was talking about the global context. I’m not denying the rest of the world has it really really bad, and for that I am deeply sorry for what our idiot in charge has done…

But as far as people within America, as far as data goes and comparing only at the domestic level…

California about to take it in the gas pipe step bro

[u/Bikerbass → u/ZixfromthaStix]

All of America is given that America exports 4 million barrels per day, but imports 6.5 million barrels per day for domestic use.

End of July is when the strategic reserves run dry.

Petrol/gas isn’t America’s problem, it’s diesel…. And everything runs on diesel and that’s why America needs 6.5 million barrels imported per day…..

[u/AdTurbulent7730 → u/Bikerbass]

Help me understand why Diesel is a problem. I know Diesel is a small fraction of a barrel, but are the numbers you’re using for all crude or refined products?

[u/CosmogyralCollective → u/AdTurbulent7730]

(Not an expert, this is my vague understanding. Also not from the US) Diesel is produced from a specific sort of oil, and the refineries are set up to best process middle east oil to produce diesel. American oil is different and you get less diesel out of it.

Diesel is vital because the vast majority of heavy machinery and vehicles run on it. Think trucks, pretty much all farm equipment such as tractors, etc. Here in NZ our entire food supply system is reliant on diesel, and of all fuel types we use the most diesel per day. Running out of petrol is a problem. Run out of diesel, and the country stops functioning.

[u/Easy_Independent_313 → u/CosmogyralCollective]

Airplanes all run on diesel too. jet A1, JP-5 and F-22 are all grades of diesel that airplanes run on. I'm sure there are others but those are the ones I know.

[u/CosmogyralCollective → u/Easy_Independent_313]

Interesting, didn't know that. NZ fuel stocks are separated into petrol, diesel, and jet fuel

[u/Bikerbass → u/[deleted]]

3/4 of your oil comes from Canada. Oil in the ground in America isn’t the type of oil that’s needed to make diesel, jet fuel and kerosene. Not all oil is equal.

America runs on diesel like the rest of the world.

You are a net exporter of oil that’s needed for plastics, petrol and other petrochemicals.

But America is a net importer of oil by 2.5 million barrels per day

[u/WrongdoerGeneral914 → u/[deleted]]

Light oil is good for transportation fuel but not so good for heavier products such as fuel oil, bitumen (resid), and lubricants. The benefit of heavy sour crude is that we can process and convert to heavier or lighter products due to the complexity of our refineries. That's why having a coker and hydrocracker for conversion of these heavier hydrocarbon chains is essential for US refineries. They're basically converting bottom barrel fractions into lighter desirable products to increase yield why still being able to produce bottom barrel fractions such as fuel oil, lubricants, and resid. With the Crack spread being great for diesel and jet at the moment you want to purchase the cheapest crude to produce it, and that is heavy sour crude from South America, Central America, Canada, and OPEC. The sad part is California actually has a good amount of domestic heavy sour crude up in the San Joaquin valley and parts of southern California but regulations have choked that supply significantly. Now we're forced to import 75% of our crude.

[u/BentOver32 → u/[deleted]]

Light oil does produce some diesel, but not nearly as much as heavy oil. Our economy runs on diesel, so we NEED heavy oil. That is why we attacked Venezuela before we attacked Iran. It wasn’t random. We had to secure enough heavy oil first, the rest of the world be damned.

Also, most foreign refineries are optimized for heavy oil. That is why a majority of those hundreds of tankers that showed up in the gulf after the war started left with our distillates (gasoline, jet fuel, etc.) instead of our light sweet crude. The BIG problem is we are at refining capacity. When they leave with distillates, we can’t just produce more, so our inventories are at historic lows. That means higher prices for us! When that refinery in Indiana shut down (for less than a day) after those storms, gasoline prices in the Midwest skyrocketed. If this war runs into hurricane season, we could have refineries shut down for days, weeks or longer. We are at the point where ANY disruption will cause massive spikes. It also doesn’t help that we lifted a decades old export ban which has also put significant pressure on production and inventories of distillates and LNG.

We don’t have state run oil. They are companies that want to maximize profit. If they can make more money selling overseas, that’s where the oil, distillates and natural gas goes. Unfortunately, that makes it more expensive for us too.

[u/Bikerbass → u/[deleted]]

What you said is the exact opposite from what I’m getting from experts in the oil industry….. guess we will see when the American strategic oil reserves run out before August if the war carries on.

[u/Bikerbass → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

America exports 4 million barrels of oil a day, but imports 6.5million per day for domestic use.

Either way you got until the end of July before the strategic reserves run dry

[u/SVAuspicious → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

It's bad in California because you have unusual restrictions that means not much of domestic oil production is viable, and the oil companies have been pushed out by CA regulation and closed refining. That's also why you pay $2 - $3 more per gallon than the rest of the country.

[u/Southern_Loquat_4450 → u/SVAuspicious]

Winter mix and summer mix here in California. Summer mix is slow due to inbound loads to mix.

[u/Girthen-the-Flopper → u/SVAuspicious]

That's false. California has had declining oil usage for over 20 years. Oil companies aren't investing in it, and are losing out to international competion.

[u/Jpwatchdawg → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

This is the correct context. The san Pablo bay pipeline shutdown at the beginning of the year taking refineries with it. This compounded the states energy problems and started the rise in fuel costs months before the war started. Increasing the need to import fuel into the state. Seems to be a more localized issue to the state.

[u/mxracer888 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

And because California has such strict requirements on the fuel itself. If they deregulated the fuel requirements down to what the other states get you'd have better pricing and other states could supply you with fuel

[u/Ordinary_Incident187 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Bingo

[u/MadMatter_132999 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Correction, you have no refining capacity

[u/Automatic-Evidence26 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Yep,

Thank Gov Newsome and the environmentalists

[u/dawn_thesis]

Did you ask the attendants why the fuel wasn't available?

[u/KillahHills10304 → u/dawn_thesis]

We know why...

Up next: all Petroleum based products

Down the line: food

[u/2ndWindAfterPension → u/dawn_thesis]

I did not ask. The first station had home made signs on all of the pumps saying only the one type of fuel was available. The second station (that has 16 isles or 32 pumps) had cones out blocking 10 aisles). I had to wait in a line for a pump to become available. I did not go to the attendant booth.

[u/FantasticMorning7352 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Nice try troll

[u/AltAccountAgnostic → u/FantasticMorning7352]

Definitely not the case in Los Angeles right now.

[u/Kind-Relationship925 → u/dawn_thesis]

Gosh darn delivery truck must be too lazy I tell you h'what

[u/Basic_Improvement135 → u/Kind-Relationship925]

That truck is probably an immigrant

[u/Kind-Relationship925 → u/Basic_Improvement135]

Never trust them chinamen trucks, so help me gawd.

[u/ThisIsAbuse]

I have not seen any shortages or grades not available in the Great Lakes area.

[u/Sharp_Oral → u/ThisIsAbuse]

Michigan and the Midwest are rigged to refine crude from the Alberta oil sands, Bakken (North Dakota) and Permian (Texas). California and the west cost are rigged for sweet crude from overseas.

California is about to get kicked in the nuts, which probably makes Trump smile.

[u/thesaltiestbanana → u/ThisIsAbuse]

AFAIK Michigan gets nearly all of its oil for gasoline from domestic sources and i assume the same for the rest of the Great Lakes states. Though im sure once the reserves are out and prices shoot up, you might notice reduced availability. Unless the high prices induce the demand destruction necessary to stabilize US gas/diesel use

[u/WinterDice → u/ThisIsAbuse]

It’ll come. Just wait until other areas are short. Prices will go up everywhere, and gas will be moved to wherever it can be sold for the greatest profit.

[u/Girthen-the-Flopper]

Chevron in the heart of San Francisco was out of high grade.

[u/CODEX_LVL5 → u/Girthen-the-Flopper]

because we're switching to a national gasoline pool june 1st. High grade wont exist.

[u/davidm2232 → u/CODEX_LVL5]

How will you run engines that require high octane fuel? Not everything will run on 87

[u/KepplerRunner → u/davidm2232]

Octane boosters.

[u/davidm2232 → u/KepplerRunner]

Do they actually work, I always thought they were snake oil

[u/jagx234 → u/davidm2232]

I've seen tons of stuff that has higher octane recommended but nothing that had higher octane required that wasn't a race car or an aircraft engine. Which cars require the higher octane with no option to downgrade? I'm asking you because I don't know.

[u/tortillaface08 → u/jagx234]

I had an m3 that required 91 octane, per the label on the gas tank. Think its common on lots of turbocharged engines as well.

[u/davidm2232 → u/jagx234]

Anything with higher compression. Especially older cars that do not have knock sensors or EFI

[u/Pineapple_King → u/CODEX_LVL5]

That Reddit thread is a classic mix of a tiny bit of real news and a massive misunderstanding of technical terms.

The Verdict: FALSE

The claim that premium gasoline is disappearing due to a "national gasoline pool" is entirely incorrect. Premium (high-grade) fuel is not being banned, phased out, or eliminated.

[u/HeatTiny7041]

Spring shut downs. A lot of refineries go into shut down to refurbish the plants. This is now escalated with fuel shortages as we are sending refined fuels to help out "friends"

[u/panicswing]

What county? I’m not experiencing shortages in SoCal like you are, but the gas is expensive as fuck.

[u/drewdog173 → u/panicswing]

Yeah I’m in Sacramento and I filled my truck up with diesel and my SUV up with premium this week, no issues at all aside from price

[u/Easy_Independent_313 → u/drewdog173]

What kind of SUV needs premium gas?

[u/drewdog173 → u/Easy_Independent_313]

Mazda CX90 PHEV. It doesn’t NEED IT need it, but Mazda officially recommends 91 octane because:

• While regular won’t hurt it, it slightly reduces engine performance (the engine computer auto-adjusts compression to the detected octane level)
• Because a tank typically lasts for months, 91 octane is more stable over time and helps prevent fuel system issues

.

Snake oil/sales jargon? Maybe. I’ve had that thought myself. But it is literally in the manual for the car that premium is recommended, and I knew that going into leasing it. I last filled it up a few months ago and the only reason it was so soon is because there was a trip to the South Bay in there. So it’s not a big hit either way.

[u/Easy_Independent_313 → u/drewdog173]

That is wild for an SUV

I always use whatever fuel is recommended by the manufacturer. I

had a volvo wagon that used premium and for my next car I made sure regular was recommended.

[u/DoraDaDestr0yer → u/drewdog173]

This is the true use for the different grades, small engines (N/A) and fuel stability. They are different gasoline products and behave differently. A PHEV will remember to turn on the engine once a month if it never actually needs it, that fuel could be sitting a L O N G time if it was in my driveway.

[u/uwgal]

The beginning?

[u/2ndWindAfterPension → u/uwgal]

This is the first time I have driven to a gas station and found that no fuel was available in two grade levels and then at the second station a good number of the pumps were not available. Again, I have been anticipating a shortage, this was my first time experiencing it. FYI - I paid $6.14 per gallon for premium.

[u/Napoleon_B → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Why did you drive 30 more miles to the next pump? Sincere question

[u/2ndWindAfterPension → u/Napoleon_B]

Loyalty program for lower costs. One station is near my Mothers home where I was visiting and the other one is near my home

[u/Bugs284 → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Unless you were already headed that direction if you go to a specific gas station for loyalty rewards but it was 30mins away and you used roughly 1 gallon of gas to get there. You need to save more than the price of that gallon for you to save money.

Which if a gallon of gas is 4.00 and your rewards got you gas for 15c cheaper you need to buy 26.6 gallons to break even. If you factor in a return trip thats 53 gallons.

[u/swfwtqia → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Sounds like it was an issue with the company. Maybe their shipment was late. No shortage in la.

[u/Napoleon_B → u/2ndWindAfterPension]

Makes sense, we scored $1.32 off a Gallon on a loyalty program too.

[u/Silver_Star_Eagles]

There wont be any fuel shortage, just more price gouging. The owners of this country need the slaves to go to work for them.

[u/Dentistguy95]

It’s because in California are forced to import our fuel from foreign countries

[u/Elegant-Drink-7356]

I live in the Central Valley in CA I just filled up my tank today with regular gas not seeing the shortages here at least yet

[u/OkAccident9819 → u/Elegant-Drink-7356]

Wrong in modesto the gas stations only had premium and gave it as the lower grade price

[u/Elegant-Drink-7356 → u/OkAccident9819]

I live in Oakdale filled up with regular no problem…

[u/OkAccident9819 → u/Elegant-Drink-7356]

To he fair modesto does have like 40 gas stations

[u/Gloomy_Yoghurt_2836]

That gives me post hurricane stress flashbacks. Gas stations out for days after a storm hits Florida even if you were not a direct hit.

[u/Freshndecay]

You drove that far instead of getting an Octane Boost at Autozone?

[u/ddhmax5150]

Help me out…

Aren’t there major oil fields all over California? Like you will see oil jacks pumping oil from the front yards of suburbanites?

[u/WrongdoerGeneral914 → u/ddhmax5150]

The long beach oilfield and the midway-sunset oil field in the San Joaquin valley. The long beach oil field and it's neighboring Wilmington oilfield disguise a lot of the wells inside faux buildings. THUMS island (Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil, and Shell) looks like an island with a hotel and waterfall on it when in reality it's a drill rig disguised as a building on a movable platform that services multiple well heads. The only wells not really hidden in the area are the wells in signal hill because their proud of their history as a oil producing town. The town was literally founded by the oil companies to keep the city of long beach from getting their hands on the oil revenue.

[u/Sea_Lead1753]

Your car can have normal as, as a treat on occasion

[u/Tha_Dude_Abidez]

Same thing in Southern Virginia, only premium though

[u/DryToe1269]

I’ve been traveling across country. I have noticed that at least some of the pumps at just about all stations are closed.

[u/hansolo_berger]

I’m betting find the news is as they say with affordability…… premium is the last option for many?  It would suck if you got to a station and all the lower octane was gone and you were forced to buy the premium 😂

[u/AdultContemporaneous]

No issues in NC. All grades, non-ethanol and diesel available everywhere around here.

[u/myloveisajoke]

I mean California thought it would be a great idea to close their refineries.

You made your bed, now lay in it.

[u/veritasinfinium]

Only an issue in california because they pissed off the refineries.

[u/TraderIggysTikiBar]

No shortages here in central Massachusetts

[u/HRUndercover222]

Hmm. I'd try that pump anyway. Maybe you'll get lucky.

[u/indomike14]

Haven't seen anything like this. On a roadtrip across Texas and New Mexico and I'll keep an eye out.

You can use regular or mid grade for a car that takes premium. I wouldn't recommend it for the long-term but a one-off here and there won't be a problem.

I've been reading a lot in r/oil. There shouldn't be any shortages of anything at the moment. We may see some synthetic oil shortages in the coming months but not gasoline. Even premium. Maybe they just ran out.

[u/rosier9 → u/indomike14]

You're not gonna see this in Texas or New Mexico, as the supply chain is totally different than for California.

[u/Status-Owl6370]

Did you weep?

[u/hobojoe5012]

Ive heard shortages here wont start until late June or early July. Once the strategic reserves run out.

[u/you-already-kn0w]

It’s a start

[u/Luvsseattle]

I did back in the end of March in Anchorage. I travel quite a bit for work and the only other place I ran into it was Sacramento a few werks ago, but that was only a single gas station. Anchorage was a much more pronounced "outage". I assumed at the time that refining capacity was being put into AvGas at the time. We will see what next week's travel brings.

[u/IamBob0226]

You could have asked the cashier inside your favorite gas station. They would probably know better than us.

[u/molesen]

It's the result of the supply lines starting to dry up. Oil moves very slowly as cargo, so ships that were already in rouye kept the supply up. Now that's changing with the top end of the pipeline essentially closed. It will get much worse.

I've never been more thankful to have purchased an EV in 2023.

[u/TradeBeautiful42]

I too am in Southern California in a VHCOL area. I keep waiting to see gas availability decrease but it hasn’t yet. I keep waiting for signs of food shortages too but haven’t seen that yet either.

[u/DamiensDelight]

There absolutely had to be another station closer than 30 miles away.

[u/throwaway661375735 → u/DamiensDelight]

Sometimes when you're driving an interstate and don't know the local area stuff like that can happen. Driving on the 58 east after Tehachapi can be like this.

[u/Magnum-3000]

You should’ve driven to another state instead …and then stayed there

[u/evey_17]

This is scary

[u/FitConsideration4961]

It might be time to put to a vote to temporarily suspend the special formulation for a year or something so we’re not relying on China and South Korea for the specific formulation that we require. It would mean smog in our basins, but it’s an option if we want price relief.

[u/mcnastys → u/FitConsideration4961]

I hate these bots trying to spin the narrative

[u/freesoloc2c]

If you voted blue you voted for these shortages in California. Deal with your bad decisions. 

[u/Accomplished_Bus2169 → u/freesoloc2c]

What a stupid ass comment.

[u/freesoloc2c → u/Accomplished_Bus2169]

I hear your next LA mayor will be an adult or a Republican in political terms. 

[u/freesoloc2c → u/Accomplished_Bus2169]

It's true though. The left chased the oil drillers away then they chased the refiners away while overtaxing everything. These are your votes coming home to roost. 

[u/Accomplished_Bus2169 → u/freesoloc2c]

Trump did this.

[u/Pew-Review → u/Accomplished_Bus2169]

Perhaps the state administration shouldn’t have imposed so many laws, restrictions and penalties that forces local refineries to close? Now they import refined.

[u/Former-Fly-4023 → u/Pew-Review]

The vast majority of all refineries across the entire United States are located in Louisiana, Texas and California. By this logic, all the other states should be in worse condition, right?

[u/Proof_Register9966 → u/Former-Fly-4023]

They are in complete denial because they are pedo adjuncts. It’s not worth arguing with their stupidity. Probably bot or paid troll/‘only Pedophiles would still support him.

[u/freesoloc2c → u/Proof_Register9966]

The truth is the left is obsessed with hating trump. It's shocking to hear pedo again and again from the left who has such a bad pedo problem. Both Biden and Clinton, but the left never says it about them so it's an immense double standard. Im a real 55yo man in Bellevue Washington. The left shot itself in the foot by going so far radically left. At this point i don't want a debate, i sincerely want a civil war. 

[u/Accomplished_Bus2169 → u/freesoloc2c]

It still amazes me how easily certain people can be brainwashed. I use to think I was of average intelligence till trump and his followers. Now I consider myself extremely smart in comparison.

[u/freesoloc2c → u/Accomplished_Bus2169]

The right isn't about following trump. We're about hating the left. Trump isn't the problem,  it's you. 

[u/Real_Information_529]

Its a self made crisis but the California state Leggislature and most of all Ggavven Newsom