(Bloomberg) -- More than 1,700 gas stations are without electricity on Friday because of the Texas power disaster, threatening to push pump prices even higher with key refineries in the state still shut.
The total represents more 12% of the stations in Texas, according to Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for retail fuel tracker GasBuddy. Among the largest cities, the most outages are concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Gasoline prices at the pump in Texas are at $2.27 a gallon, up 6 cents from a week ago, according to auto club AAA. The national average clocks in at $2.60 a gallon, the highest since November 2019. Some of the biggest refineries in Texas are expected to take weeks to resume operations, with many plants having to repair damaged equipment, suggesting it may be tough, and costly, for Texans to fuel up.
#Texas gas station outages continuing to rise, now 12.5%, or roughly 1,763 stations without fuel or power. Some metro outage percentages:
DFW 24.5%
SAT 23.3%
HOU 15.8%
AUS 19.3%
— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) February 19, 2021
The freeze also pushed the Gulf Coast cash-market gasoline trade higher. Cash gasoline blendstock for Colonial Pipeline was at $1.82 a gallon on Friday, the highest since July 2019.
Yet, gasoline demand is still weaker with fewer drivers hitting the roads with the cold temperatures following icy conditions. U.S. fuel consumption last week was at the lowest seasonally in 20 years, also due partly to the Covid-19 pandemic depressing demand, government data show.
© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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