PORTLAND – With spring around the corner, a propane shortage that brought the state precariously close to the tipping point is quickly fading from memory.
Propane dealers, however, are hoping to learn from the challenge presented by a perfect storm of events – a rail strike, tanker ship delays and frigid temperatures – that created a crisis for two weeks in February.
Some of the lessons are obvious.
“Those suppliers who are 100 percent rail will probably diversify their supply,” said Jamie Py of the Maine Oil Dealers Association. “Smaller- and medium-sized dealers are looking to put in storage to prevent these situations.”
Maine, which gets 60 percent of its propane by rail, saw problems arise almost overnight when 2,800 Canadian National rail workers went on strike on Feb. 10. Then rough seas delayed the arrival of ships in Newington, N.H., and Providence, R.I.
And it all happened during the some of coldest weather of the winter, a time when energy demand across the region was higher than normal.
Just when it appeared the situation couldn’t get any worse, a pipeline rupture temporarily disrupted supplies to a terminal in Selkirk, N.Y., which serves as an alternative source for Maine’s propane needs.
In Maine, more than 25,000 homes, or roughly 5 percent of the total, use liquefied petroleum gas as their primary source of heat. Businesses including restaurants, big-box retail stores, nursing homes and hospitals also use propane.
Elsewhere in New England, about 50,000 home owners in New Hampshire use propane for heat, along with 29,000 in Vermont and 64,000 in Massachusetts. But Maine suffered the worst shortages because of its heavy reliance on rail delivery.
No Mainers went without heat during the two-week crisis, but Maine propane dealers had to take steps to control their inventory either by making partial deliveries or skipping homes whose tanks were more than half full.
In some instances, dealers looked to competitors to provide enough propane to at least make partial deliveries to customers.
In Bangor, Robert Cort from Maine Energy said his company weathered the tight supplies without a problem despite relying on rail cars for 90 percent of supply. Nonetheless, he’s looking to expand his supply options.
“You have to put a blend in your basket that involves both rail and bringing propane in by ship. You can have problems in either direction. If you have a blend, if you have one problem it could hit you less hard,” he said.
Augusta Fuel Co. plans to double its propane storage capacity this summer, adding an additional 30,000-gallon propane storage tank.
The company had already planned to increase its storage, but speeded up the process because of the February problems, said Marc Lacasse, president of Augusta Fuel Co. and chairman of the Maine Oil Dealers Association.
“It made the investment easier to make,” he said. The project, he said, will cost between $125,000 and $150,000.
The propane shortage came at a time when TV ads created by the Propane Education & Research Council were promoting the use of propane.
The ads touted propane as a flexible fuel for water heaters, cook stoves, clothes dryers and furnaces, among other things.
Mike Estes from Estes Oil & Propane, who bought property for storage tanks in late February, was relieved that the shortage was not worse. As it was, he got by with help from his competitors and conservation by customers.
“It could’ve been a total black eye to the industry,” Estes said. “Here we are out promoting propane as a reliable fuel with flexibility on how you use it, and then you run out. Nobody wanted that.”
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On the Net:
Maine Oil Dealers Association http://www.meoil.com/
AP-ES-03-18-07 1033EDT
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