Esso Gas Shortages Continue In Western Canada

Strathcona, Canada (AHN) - Gasoline supplies were cut by 50 percent after a breakdown at Imperial Oil's Strathcona, Alberta refinery, where 40 percent of Esso gas stations' fuel supplies are produced.

The still undetermined cause of the breakdown has dried up Esso stations across western Canada for the past two days, however, news reports said that Imperial has been reducing the amount of fuel sent to its retailers since Feb. 24.

Aside from Alberta, supply shortage was also reported at Esso stations in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Imperial is looking at shipping gasoline from other areas of Canada and the United States. It hopes that supplies will normalize in a few weeks.

Canada's gas consuming public fear of gas prices going up in the coming days until the plant breakdown is fixed. The country is experiencing an under capacity as for the past three decades, no new refineries were built as cars on the road continued to increase.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has similar problems due to delays caused by unplanned maintenance at Shell's Scotford refinery near Fort Saskatchewan.