Some Petro-Canada stations still waiting to fill up
Last Updated: Friday, September 5, 2008 | 3:17 PM ET
CBC News
A month after a breakdown at Petro-Canada's Edmonton refinery caused shortages at up to 90 retail and independent outlets in western Canada, half the stations were still dry Friday, even though operations at the facility resumed last week.
The catalytic cracking unit, or "cat cracker," used to refine fuel broke down in early August. The Edmonton refinery usually processes 135,000 barrels of crude oil each day.
Petro-Canada spokesperson Kelli Stevens said Friday that the company has been able to get gasoline back to half the stations affected by the shortage.
Stevens can't put a timeline on when remaining outlets will get fuel, saying it will take some time for Petro-Canada to rebuild its inventory.
"We'll continue adding sites back into the network as fast as we can," she said.
Stevens says output at the Edmonton refinery is limited by what she calls a turnaround, which is a scheduled shutdown of the refinery which is not related to the shortfall.
"Its more to tie in some new units that we have just finished construction on for a different project," she said. "The shutdown of the cat cracker last month was not expected. The cat cracker was supposed to run throughout the turnaround situation."
Cam Baker noticed the empty pumps when he pulled into a Petro-Canada outlet in Edmonton's Bonnie Doon neighbourhood Thursday.
"I came here on empty and noticed that every single one is tied up and they got no gas," he said.
Stevens says customers will be able to tell when a station has gas again.
"When they see a price sign displaying a price again rather than the zeros, they know that they can go back there to get gasoline," she said.
