Austin Gas Prices Spike Over Weekend After Ike

Via AustinBusinessJournal -

The average price of gasoline in Austin has risen 5 cents a gallon since Friday when Hurricane Ike came ashore in the Galveston area.

AAA Texas says the local price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.65, up from $3.60 on Friday. Statewide prices surged 13 cents over the weekend to $3.68 a gallon.

Ike forced the shutdown of most Gulf Coast refineries as well as offshore oil and gas production platforms. Roughly 25 percent of the nation’s domestic oil production comes from the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite the price jump, AAA Texas says there is some encouraging news. Officials inspecting major oil refineries along the coast say it appears that those facilities sustained less damage than what was earlier feared. In addition, crude oil prices continue to fall despite the low supply level. Monday’s opening price for a barrel of crude is $97, down from an all-time high of $147.17 in mid-July.

AAA says there have been sporadic reports of price gouging, but the issue is not widespread and most service station owners are handling the situation responsibly.

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Days before IKE touched land, there was localized outages at some Austin gas stations. Mostly due to people filling up - just in case.

I personally heard about one gas station (up North, near Cedar Park) that was selling gas for almost one dollar more than other stations in the area...hopefully they were reported.

ATX saw very small amounts of rain...we need rain and many people were waiting for it - but it never came. I was on the east side of I-35 on Saturday night and was caught in rain for about 10-15mins at 1am (Sunday morning), but that was it.

Houston on the other hand wasn't so lucky. Many are without power, including some of my friends in downtown H-town.