No ‘miracle fix’ for gas shortage
Feb 27, 2007 07:20 PM
Canadian Press
Numerous gas stations across Ontario remained dry Tuesday as oil officials cautioned against expecting a “miracle fix” to end the province’s fuel shortage, but the situation is expected to ease in the next few days as a key refinery restarts operations.
“The situation overall is still pretty tight,” said Gordon Wong, a spokesman for Imperial Oil.
“As each of the pieces that contributed to this resolve themselves, obviously that will have a positive impact on the supply situation.”
Wong said supply was tight even before the Feb. 15 fire at the company’s Nanticoke refinery, southwest of Hamilton, which shut down crude oil production.
The refinery is expected to be operating in a limited capacity by the end of the week and be fully operational by mid-March, but Wong said the effects of the shortage will continue to be felt for some time afterward.
“There isn’t going to be a miracle fix where the refinery will be up and running and everything will be back to normal,” he said.
“It will take some time to get back to a normal situation.”
Imperial Oil is also working on obtaining gas from other jurisdictions, both in Canada and the U.S.
A handful of gas stations in Montreal also ran out of gas in recent days, but Imperial Oil said the problem was unrelated to Ontario’s woes and has been largely resolved.
The pinch at the pumps in Ontario was helped late last week by the end of a strike by Canadian National Railway workers. Trains that transported gasoline had been halted by the work action, exacerbating the province’s fuel troubles.
Esso gas stations, which are supplied by Imperial Oil, have been hit hardest by the shortage, but Wong would not say how many stations have run dry. Shell Canada has experienced temporary shortages at about 30 of its 600 Ontario stations, while an estimated 20 or 30 Petro-Canada stations have run out of gas at times.
At Ontario gas stations that still had fuel Tuesday, prices hovered around the $1-per-litre mark — in line with prices at some stations in Vancouver ($1.05) and Halifax ($1.02).
Industry analyst Robb Moss said he has not seen many gas shortages in the past 30 years, and called this one “unprecedented” because it was caused by refinery-related supply issues.
He warned that tight supply will continue to be a problem if consumption continues at its current pace.
“Unless … consumer and industry recognize that there’s an issue here going forward, it’s not going to be smooth sailing,” said Moss, who works with Acumen Capital Partners Ltd.
“We all have to pull up our socks and figure out ways of consuming less.”
“It could really be helped if everybody just took a day off and parked their cars. … It would just take a tremendous amount of pressure off the situation.”
The Ontario Trucking Association is calling on the federal government to temporarily allow truckers to use off-road-grade diesel fuel, which is mainly used by farmers, construction crews and railways.
“When you consider that trucks haul 90 per cent of all consumer products and foodstuffs and three-quarters of our trade with the U.S., the economic implications are profound from all of this,” said association president David Bradley.
While Bradley said the situation among truckers is holding steady for now, that will change if the shortage lasts much longer.
“I would not want us to be in the situation we’re in today a week from now. Things will just deteriorate further unless something changes.”
