Idalia Disrupts Fuel Station Operations in Florida, Other Southeast States — OPIS

Gasoline demand at many service stations in Florida and other Southeast states affected by Hurricane Idalia was down sharply on Wednesday as many motorists rode out the storm that brought widespread flooding and wind damage across the region, OPIS retail data showed.

The number of gas stations in Florida considered as open on Wednesday was 25% to 35% below the number on Tuesday, according to OPIS' retail data. In Florida's Big Bend coastal area, where Idalia made landfall early Wednesday as a Category 3 storm, and in regions to the north, many gas stations that were open at midday Tuesday were inactive on Wednesday.

Stations in other areas along Florida's west coast also reported less activity on Wednesday. Gas station business in Pinellas County, which forms the western border of Tampa Bay, Marion County, which includes Gainesville, and Manatee County, home to Sarasota, reported declines of 68%, 50% and 52% by midday Wednesday compared with Tuesday.

OPIS data also showed that as of 8 a.m. ET Thursday, 4,727 stations in Florida were considered active, down 30% from the same time on Tuesday.

The number of service stations operating Wednesday in parts of Georgia and the Carolinas also were down significantly from Tuesday, though the declines were less than in Florida, according to OPIS data.

OPIS, which collects gas station activities every four hours, considers a retail fuel station active when a payment card was swiped in the previous four-hour period. OPIS tracks more than 30,000 gas stations across the U.S.

Ned Bowman, executive director at the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association, said that while some gas stations in Big Bend were running on backup power, most others had reopened by Thursday. Stations along Florida's busy I-10 corridor have had steady fuel supply and were mostly unaffected by the hurricane, he said.

Bowman said Idalia should not significantly affect fuel demand in Florida over the upcoming extended Labor Day weekend, except in some coastal and island communities such as Cedar City that were hard hit by Idalia.

"The rest of the state is wide open," he said.

Most product terminals have reopened after closing briefly Wednesday. Sources told OPIS that while Chevron's Tampa terminal did not have power as of early Thursday, most of the others are up and running.

Kinder Morgan said its facilities in Tampa and Charleston, S.C., had resumed operations by Thursday. The company said it is assessing its facilities in Wilmington, N.C. and expects to reopen there on Friday morning.

Ahead of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall along Florida's southwest coast less than 11 months ago as a Category 4 storm, gasoline demand in the state rose by 16.7% from the previous week as residents filled up their tanks, OPIS Demand Pro data showed. In the following week, demand had fallen by nearly 18%.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 31, 2023 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)

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