Gas, jet fuel shortages feared for Las Vegas

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Gas, jet fuel shortages feared for Las Vegas Published Saturday, January 20, 2001 12:00:00 AM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Steven Barrie

Staff Writer

COLTON - Las Vegas may see shortages of gasoline and jet fuel because the electric pumps that transfer petroleum products from the massive tanks alongside Interstate 10 have been frequently shut off during the energy crisis.

Coming home from Las Vegas may be more difficult than getting there if the crisis continues, officials said.

"This has the potential to be a very serious problem," said Michael Kelly, operations manager of Calnev Pipe Line Co., which pumps gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel through pipes from the tanks to Las Vegas. The Colton fuel farm collects the petroleum products from Southland refineries.

"If Calnev is only allowed to operate 25 percent of the time, we will not be able to meet the fuel needs of the markets we serve," Kelly said.

The company usually pumps fuel 24 hours a day through two pipes from Colton to Las Vegas, but since the electricity crisis began, Calnev's operations have been cut back to six overnight hours.

Calnev usually receives discounted electricity from the industrial power grid, which means power can be interrupted even without the rolling blackouts plaguing California. Power outages have been increasing within the past month, Calnev general manager Gene Braithwaite said.

"The interruptions started out as once a week, then once a day, then two or three times a day," he said. "There are no physical problems with the system, other than we don't have the power to operate."

Normally, Kelly said, Calnev pumps 6,000 barrels, the equivalent of 30 tanker trucks, of jet fuel an hour through an 8-inch pipeline that winds its way from Colton up through the Cajon Pass, across the High Desert and into Las Vegas.

Another 14-inch pipe parallels the jet-fuel line through the desert, supplying gasoline and diesel fuel to Calnev supply centers in Barstow and Las Vegas. Pumps on that line are also idle as Southern California Edison seeks to cut the state's power demands.

The pumps remained idle Thursday, cutting off new fuel supplies to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, airport and Calnev operators said.

Sources at both Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad, two major Calnev customers, said while their current fuel reserves would allow them to operate for up to eight days, a long-term slowdown on the pipeline might create problems.

Calnev was only able to pump for six hours a day on Wednesday and Thursday, Kelly said. The results have been tightening fuel supplies for McCarran.

"It's not a crisis. We have backup plans to bring in fuel," McCarran spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

Gene Braithwaite warned that if full power isn't restored in California, fuel shortages could spread from the airport to the streets within two weeks.

"Unless we can get (the pipeline) running full time, it's going to create a shortage of jet fuel in particular," Braithwaite said.

Union Pacific Spokesman Mike Furtney said it would be difficult to determine what impact a long-term slowdown on the Calnev pipeline would have on the railroad's operations.

"We're watching it closely," he said, adding that analysts at the railroad's Omaha headquarters are reviewing the situation and may have a more detailed response ready next week.

A Burlington Northern and Santa Fe spokeswoman said that Calnev missed a fuel delivery Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Steven Barrie can be reached at (909) 386-3855.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/articles/Gasjetfu.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 20, 2001

Answers

Power-crisis damage spreads beyond California

The damage from California's power crisis has begun to spread as a shortage of electricity interrupted service on pipelines carrying gasoline and diesel fuel both within the state and as far away as Las Vegas.

As the West's power shortage has forced the operators of California's electricity grid to institute rotating blackouts lasting about two hours in certain parts of the state, some companies lost their electricity for much longer.

Among those customers, who pay lower power charges in exchange for volunteering to be cut off when electricity is in short supply, are companies running oil-product pipelines. Without electricity, the pipeline operators can't pump gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel from oil refineries to the terminals where trucks pick up the fuel to carry it to airports and gas stations.

"At the pipeline, we're experiencing major disruptions to our customers," said George Lowman, a spokesman for GATX Corp., a Chicago- based finance and leasing company that operates oil pipelines and terminals. He said electricity at GATX's Carson City, California, terminal and at a pipeline carrying oil products to Las Vegas had been interrupted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

GATX's Las Vegas fuel terminal has nearly run out of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, while stockpiles of jet fuel may only last three to four days.

Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Energy Partners.said it had to shut pipelines connecting oil refineries to its northern California terminals in Concord and Richmond, near San Francisco. And Valero Energy, which runs a refinery that feeds the Kinder Morgan system, said its oil-product storage tanks are filling up.

If the pipelines don't reopen in a few days, the company said, it may have to reduce oil-product production. Crude oil traders at other refiners said the crisis could force them to take similar steps.

Las Vegas has other sources of fuel, and no one seems likely to have to go without gasoline in California, but the problems in the oil- product industry added urgency to the state legislature's efforts to solve its electricity shortage.

Source: Peter Rosenthal, BridgeNews

http://onebusiness.nzoom.com/business_detail/0,1070,26312,00.html

Published on Jan 20, 2001

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 20, 2001.


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