Diesel shortage fears grow for the east coast, Love’s ‘monitoring’ situation

A recent message sent from Love’s Travel Stops warned that drivers may see temporary diesel fuel shortages in several east coast states.

Amid skyrocketing diesel fuel prices, multiple news outlets have reported that there could be major diesel fuel supply issues on the east coast in the coming weeks and months.

In the Bloomberg article “U.S. East Coast Diesel Supply Is Running on Fumes” the outlet reported that “east coast inventories of diesel plunged to the lowest seasonal level since government records started more than 30 years ago.”

Recently, Love’s Travel Stops sent a message to fleet customers warning that drivers may see temporary fuel supply problems in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

“The Love’s Fleet Sales Team proactively alerted the company’s fleet customer base to maintain their consistent, straight forward approach to evolving market fluctuations. Love’s is committed to keeping our customers well-informed of market developments ahead of the trends to help mitigate impact to their business,” Love’s told CDLLife in an emailed statement.

Love’s also offered the following statement on the current state of fuel supply on the east coast:

Love’s is monitoring the fluid situation on the east coast, we have experienced minimal outages during low traffic hours. It is always our mission to keep diesel stocked to fulfill our customer commitment to keeping drivers on the road.  

The company has no plans to restrict purchases of diesel. Love’s will continue to use its best-in-class logistics and fuel delivery companies, Musket and Gemini, to minimize impacts to our diesel customers. 

GasBuddy fuel market analyst Patrick De Haan noted on Thursday that “retail travel stops are making extraordinary hauls from the Great Lakes to the Northeast to obtain fuel in some cases.”

De Haan also suggested that while there is no need for immediate panic on the east coast diesel fuel supply, he is seeing signs that supplies could be “very tight” and that unbranded large chains could face “very challenging circumstances.”