Video by Jessica Babb | Broadcast Managing Editor, Story by Julia Vergara | Staff Writer
Gas prices in Waco are on the rise after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall on Friday brought damage along the coast, Houston and surrounding areas.
Gas stations in the area such as the H-E-B on Valley Mills and the one in Bellmead are running out of gas while other gas stations such as the Flying J off of I-35 are getting alternate distributions from Oklahoma City instead of Houston.
“This is the second stop I’ve had to make to buy fuel this morning,” a relief worker heading down south, Rick Caywood told LTVN reporter, Jessica Babb. “So hopefully we’ll get down there and back without having to do without.”
According to GasBuddy, a smartphone app that monitors real-time fuel prices, regular unleaded gas prices in Waco have gone up by 2.9 cents from the yesterday’s average and up 7.3 cents from last week’s average. As for the whole state of Texas, gas prices are up 3.1 cents from yesterday’s average and up 7.6 cents from last week’s average.
S&P Global Platts, a company that provides information and benchmark prices for energy markets, said that traffic into and out of the gulf coast has largely been closed—restricting the import and export of oil and refined products. The company also said that roughly 2.33 million b/d of Texas refining capacity remained down as of today.
Three-tenths of the nation’s crude oil refining capacity is located in Texas, with the majority of the refineries “clustered near ports along the Gulf Coast,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s website.
