It Now Carries Auto Fuel To Gas-Starved Phoenix

Petroleum executives promise Tucson (AZ) won't run out of jet fuel, after a pipeline from Phoenix was 'retasked' this week to help the Valley of the Sun deal with a terrible gas crunch.

The decision from Kinder Morgan, the Houston-based company which owns a pair of pipelines between the two Arizona cities, came after all retail gasoline supplies in Phoenix dried up virtually at once. Of 313 filling stations in the Valley of the Sun, only 13 offered gasoline to drivers earlier this week.

Gas prices shot up to well over $2/gal., with some stations' reputedly charging upwards of $4/gal. (Arizona has no applicable anti-gouging laws.) The reason for the gas crunch? Kinder Morgan's other six-inch pipe between Tucson and Phoenix broke, leaving five homes awash in gasoline. Earlier this week, Kinder Morgan tested the gasoline line. It failed. That's when the company decided to rededicate the JP-4 pipe.

Robbing Peter To Pay Paul?

"Bypassing that segment of line is the fastest way to return gasoline deliveries to normal levels in the Phoenix market," said Tom Bannigan, Kinder Morgan's pipeline president. By repurposing the JP-4 line, Kinder Morgan is able to pump 35,000 more gallons of gas into Phoenix everyday. Of course, that's 35,000 gallons of jet fuel that won't be loaded on commercial and general aviation aircraft in Phoenix.

To make up the difference, Kinder Morgan says more JP-4 will be trucked into Tucson from El Paso and that supplies of jet fuel won't be affected. But the pipeline company made no mention of the increased costs of driving the fuel into Tucson. As motorists in Phoenix can attest, that might well cause a major spike in the price of jet fuel at the pump.

FMI: www.kindermorgan.com