Gas prices continue to go up in Connecticut in the wake of the damage Harvey has caused in Texas since Friday. The price jumped 14 cents overnight Saturday to $2.74 for a gallon of regular unleaded in Connecticut. The national average jumped seven cents as well, to $2.59, according to AAA.
The night before, gas prices had jumped 7 cents in Connecticut from $2.53 to $2.60, and 7 cents nationally from $2.45 to $2.52.
As the energy sector in the southeast Texas Gulf Coast deals with flooding in the aftermath of Harvey, it will be days or even weeks before is back to normal operations.
Since Harvey shut down refineries, other regions are pulling from Connecticut’s supply, causing the price spike just in time for Labor Day Weekend, said Amy Parmenter, AAA spokesperson.
“The timing of this is a bit unfortunate. Mother Nature obviously doesn’t have a calendar,” Parmenter said Friday.
Some gas stations in Connecticut had prices reaching $2.89 Friday.
But AAA expects the price surge to only last days or weeks, not months, according to Parmenter. Later this year, Connecticut should expect some of the lowest prices of the year, she added.
The region from Corpus Christi, Texas, where Harvey made landfall, to the Louisiana state line accounts for about 3 percent of the U.S. economy and is a crucial export market for oil and chemicals.
Exxon, Shell and other companies have reported to Texas regulators that some of their storage tanks and other facilities near Houston were damaged by the torrential rains and flooding. Most of the reports seem to indicate relatively minor damage, but still, it could be days before crews can assess matters and make repairs.
Parts of the Colonial Pipeline, the main fuel line that runs from Texas to New York, remains shut down — partly because with refineries closed, there is nothing to ship, but also because of Harvey-related damage.
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Colonial Pipeline Co., the biggest fuel transporter in the U.S., said Wednesday night in a statement that a line carrying diesel and jet fuel is temporarily shut down and that a line carrying gasoline would close today. The company plans to resume normal operations as conditions improve.
One analyst told NBC News that this could be a major blow to the country’s fuel system.
Some refineries in the Northeast are also now shipping supplies to areas of the country where supplies are low.
