Oil distributors assure there is no 'fuel shortage'

Say 'panic buying,' not Colonial Pipeline shutdown, is the real threat

With a disruption of oil transportation through the Colonial Pipeline, there has been some unnecessary concern of a "fuel shortage." The Louisiana Oil Marketers & Convenience Store Association (LOMCSA) assured consumers this week that there are "lots of fuel."

Officials with St. Romain Oil -- a local fuel wholesaler and Y-Not convenience store chain owner -- issued a statement saying the situation with Colonial Pipeline may cause some temporary delays due to oil tanker trucks having to be rerouted to other terminals to load their cargo of fuel, but "we are not expecting any major widespread outages locally."

"There may be random temporary outages," the company noted, "but nothing to be alarmed about. Outages that may occur are a result of fuel coming from farther away than normal for some stores."

Any such situation should be resolved within a few hours, the company assured.

"Please do not encourage fuel panic buying," St. Romain Oil said. "Nobody wants a 2020 toilet paper situation to happen. Our fuel levels should be fine here locally in Cenla, unless the public begins extreme, excessive panic buying."

The LOMCSA said much the same in a released statement, noting there are "infrastructure issues due to Colonial Pipeline being down," but no shortage.

The association said panic buying "DOES cause shortages. Remember the toilet paper? The public created the toilet paper shortage by panic buying.

"If you need gas to get to work, fill up," the statement continued. "If you need gas for your lawnmower, get it. We will be fine if we stay in our normal routine fuel purchases."

The LOMCSA said suppliers are doing their best to get oil to the stores to serve their customers.

"Please have patience and we'll get through this together," the statement concluded.

This past weekend Colonial Pipeline announced that it was the victim of a cyberattack and shut down all pipeline operations as a security measure. The 5,500-mile pipeline system runs from Texas to New Jersey and passes through Louisiana.

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