propane shortage

[DrBob]

The propane shortage has hit here in northern Wisconsin. Many propane dealers have run out of propane to sell at any price. A new cold blast is due tonite with lows of -30 expected with 30 mph winds. I have lived here 60 years and have never seen anything like this.
Our Governor declared a state of emergency and is preparing the national guard to help. How the guard can help I do not know.

 

[Rickey60]

What will people do to keep warm if they can not get ya'll some propane up there? I think we have propane down here that can be trucked up there to help, is this an option?

 

[DrBob]

I do not know what these people will do. A lot of people have set their heat to 50 in the house. All of our propane needs to be shipped in on trucks . Burning wood is quite common but many people just cant do it. I am considering shutting the house down and going south for a month. I do heat with a geothermal heat pump myself but I am afraid that electric shortages will be next. Many many people have resorted to electric space heaters and the load on the powerlines may exceed the capacity of the generation.

 

[Southern Planter]

I here igloos are warm.

 

[Chicken]

this year im using kerosene heaters,

saving money on the electric bill. and only heating the part of the house, im using,

but i am in florida,,, it's 62 degrees right now,

 

[daniel draeving]

I filled up just before New Years and paid $1.97 a gallon, I heard of somebody just paying $4.66 a gallon. I live in a very rural area, most of the people are elderly and on fixed incomes. It's definitely a bad situation

 

[Chicken]

i wonder if it's a real shortage, or just a way for big oil to make some extra profit's.????

i dont think america has a shortage, of propane,

 

[Knucklehead]

i wonder if it's a real shortage, or just a way for big oil to make some extra profit's.????

i dont think america has a shortage, of propane,

I agree. I can see a shortage of trucks and drivers though with the extra demand of the harsh winter.

 

[daniel draeving]

this year im using kerosene heaters,

saving money on the electric bill. and only heating the part of the house, im using,

but i am in florida,,, it's 62 degrees right now,

You got an extra roon for me? 62° would feel real good right now.

 

[Brown Thumb]

There is a shortage even on the east coast.
I was getting 1000. Gallons of oil for the shop 2 Weeks ago and Larry the owner of the fuel business was on the phone buying 3 more propane trucks just for the storage to take care of his customers, he said the demand of propane is more than the supply this season.
They saw it coming .

 

[Matty]

From what I hear at work most propane is moved around by truck and train. All the cold weather has increased demand and reduced the ability to deliver the fuel to clients. I work for a company that builds propane tanks, 320gals up to 95,000gals. We sell an average 16 30,000gal tanks per year, hundreds if not thousands of the 500-2,000gal tanks per year and dozens of truck tankers, bobtails and such. I'm sure there's plenty of the fuel to be had it's just to get it to people who need it.

 

[Knucklehead]

From what I hear at work most propane is moved around by truck and train. All the cold weather has increased demand and reduced the ability to deliver the fuel to clients. I work for a company that builds propane tanks, 320gals up to 95,000gals. We sell an average 16 30,000gal tanks per year, hundreds if not thousands of the 500-2,000gal tanks per year and dozens of truck tankers, bobtails and such. I'm sure there's plenty of the fuel to be had it's just to get it to people who need it.

That takes some good welds. Do you pressure test with air and a gauge, watch the gauge to check for leaks? Or do you x-ray all the welds?

 

[Brown Thumb]

The sad part is will the price of it ever come back down to where it was.
Fuel oil was like .68 cents a gallon 20 yrs. ago. It is By product. Now 3.50 a gallon.
5 or 6 yrs. ago my paint tripled in cost due to the cost of oil.
Has the price ever came back down. No, 500 bucks a for gallon of tint on the mixing machine it only holds about 30 gallons and I have 2.
Chit the Spray Booth only Burns 5 1/2 gallons a hour of fuel.
Good thing I burn waste oil in the shop or I would be out of business.
This weather Sucks.

 

[Matty]

That takes some good welds. Do you pressure test with air and a gauge, watch the gauge to check for leaks? Or do you x-ray all the welds?

Yes, very good welds. All welds are x-rayed and all tanks are pressure tested with water, up to 6x the operating pressure, given the application. Testing with air is deadly if there was ever a fault. I work at Pro-Par 1978, there's a website. I hope everyone gets their heating fuel soon or at least find a way to stay warm.

 

[bonehead]

i mostly just burn wood but my father stoped by today and said he got a delivery of propane yesterday and the markup from two months ago was insane. i don't even like filling up twenty pound tanks anymore.

 

[webmost]

No worries. Only 52 days until Spring.

 

[DrBob]

Somebody really pissed off the weather god. -20 with a 25 mph wind right now. and it is getting colder.

 

[webmost]

Somebody really pissed off the weather god. -20 with a 25 mph wind right now. and it is getting colder.

Still have time to run down to the shelter and adopt a dog. Fat old lady on one side, big dog on the other, quilts all piled up ... that's hittin it old school right there.

 

[Michibacy]

...oh dear...Propane just spiked to $4.45 locally...

Time to take out a mortgage for propane.

 

[ChuckP]

Howdy!

I had almost $200 in propane from last year and added another $900 back in July. If you can pre-pay for it, it will save to some money. Of course, your dealer has to have in stock to be of any good. Anyway, back in December, the propane truck came out and only delivered ~ 44 gallons while we were away. I thought this was odd and called and talked with the manager, he said that there was a propane shortage due to the farmers needed more propane to dry a very wet crop of corn this year. I say it's time to stop subsidizing ethanol, it requires way to much energy to produce a single gallon (of ethanol) and only drives up the price of corn and is passed along to the consumer. Now the consumer is going to pay for it in other ways - warmth, frozen or burst pipes, etc. I think next year, I'm going to get an outdoor wood stove. I think this is going to be like Katrina was for gasoline. Propane will be over $3+ gallon is going to be the norm.