Commuters with empty tanks may find plastic bags over gas pumps in Auburn.
Gas prices have been rising across the state and stations have been running dry in the area following the detection of a leak in a major pipeline that prompted Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley to declare a state emergency.
The pipeline is a main artery responsible for delivering gasoline to the Southeast and the East Coast, providing as much as 40 percent of the regions gasoline.
Colonial Pipeline, the owner, has estimated that as much as 8,000 barrels of fuel leaked before the pipeline was closed down.
The leak was found two weeks ago, Sept. 9.
Since then, gas prices across the Southeast have been rising.
Bentley’s state of emergency eased transportation regulations to make delivering gasoline easier for providers.
In Alabama, the average price of retail gasoline rose 7.3 cents per gallon from last week, according to price tracking site GasBuddy.
“While gasoline prices have drifted lower in parts of the country, it’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: one of the largest gasoline pipelines in the country is out of service and a Band-Aid is not going to fix the problems in the Southeast as a result,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.
Some stations in the Auburn-Opelika area have increased their prices as much as 20 cents.
Colonial Pipeline said the pipeline would resume carrying fuel after a go-around pipe was built and tested earlier this week.
It was scheduled to begin working Wednesday, Sept. 21.
Regardless, DeHann said prices will continue to rise for a while and more shortages can be expected.
“Colonial Pipeline Co. has suggested it is working on a go-around pipeline while it fixes the main pipeline, but there is no easy way to fix the pipeline and immediately restore gasoline deliveries,” he said. “This is among the largest outages of fuel since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
But Alabama won’t be the worst affected state. To reach an alternative fuel source, tankers providing fuel stations in states such as Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have to travel much farther than tankers in Alabama.
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