Gas stations still report low supplies, but deliveries due.
Fuel tankers continue to bring gas into Austin, but some stations are waiting to be restocked and others still are seeing lines of cars at the pumps as anxiety over a gas shortage remains.
Officials said the temporary closure of some oil refineries in the path of Hurricane Harvey created a manageable decrease in supply — until drivers began rushing to the pumps starting around midday Thursday to top off their tanks, creating the very shortage they had feared.
Even with new deliveries of fuel over the weekend and some Austinites out of town on Labor Day road trips, local gas stations on Sunday had not returned to normal.
The 7-Eleven gas station at Guadalupe Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard had gas Sunday morning, but probably not for long, store manager Beatrice Jackson said.
“(Demand is) very high,” Jackson said. “Right now, we have cars in line. I got a delivery at about 2 a.m. this morning and I think we’re already back down low again. This gas might last us until 3 o’clock.”
The station ran out of gas Friday and Saturday, she said. But as long as Sunday’s lines were, she said, they weren’t as bad as a few days ago.
Down at the Valero at Slaughter and Brodie lanes, cashier Sandra Ramirez said the station has been out of gas since sometime Saturday.
“We’re supposed to be getting a shipment today but I’m not sure on the timeframe,” Ramirez said Sunday. “Normally, we’d get like two or three shipments a day, but with the situation right now, we’re lucky if we get one shipment.”
A Conoco gas station at East Riverside and Montopolis drives also was out of gas Sunday and surrounded by stations with empty pumps, cashier Jay Awshah said.
“I called the big boss, he told me we expect (a) delivery tomorrow,” Awshah said. “I hope we receive (it) tomorrow, because I myself am out of gas ... this section, there’s nothing here. Valero is out, Shell is out, we are out.”
Several other gas stations reported they were out but were expecting new shipments of gas Sunday.
The Austin terminal for the Flint Hills refineries, which provide the bulk of gasoline dispensed at Austin area gas stations, has been running largely off reserves since the hurricane forced some coastal refineries to shut down.
But gasoline supplies are expected to start returning to normal this week, as some of those refineries become operational again.
In addition, Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that other states were sending gasoline to Texas to ensure a “greater supply,” though he emphasized that the state isn’t running out of fuel and that the issue has mainly been one of logistics.