Calgary Shell Stations Face Gasoline Shortage

Some stations are looking into importing product from outside the province.

July 22, 2010

CALGARY, ALBERTA - Owing to increased consumer demand, some Shell gasoline stations in Calgary have run out of gas and are looking into importing product from outside the province, the Calgary Herald reports.

"We have seen demand this summer, and last week, double what it normally is," acknowledged Shell spokesperson Jeff Gabert. "There??s a tight supply anyway??Calgary was hit particularly hard."

However, Michael Ervin, a spokesperson for MJ Ervin and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in the petroleum industry, said he doubted that an increase in demand alone could have accounted for the Western Canada shortage.

"??[I]n general, there have been some production issues [at more than one of the company??s refineries recently]," Ervin said. "This, combined with a peak spike in demand are contributing factors to some outages at stations."

Gabert said its Scotford refinery hasn't "been quite at capacity. But it hasn't affected us greatly from where we'd normally want to be."

Last summer, several Calgary stations experienced a gasoline shortage, and Petro-Canada was forced to ship in fuel from Montreal and British Columbia.

Gabert said Canadian customers could benefit from fuel shortages, because when a station runs out of regular unleaded fuel, they can purchase premium fuel for the price of the regular blend.

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