'I’m afraid': Red state oil exec panics as $5 a gallon gas looms

CNN reports gas is currently at $4.11 a gallon, on average, in the U.S. But the nation is just one month away from gas pump devastation if President Donald Trump fails to reverse the damage he’s done to the pivotal international oil corridor in the Strait of Hormuz.

America has become the supplier of last resort for nations who used to get their oil from the Middle East, reports CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera. And this has caused the oil supply here to get dangerously low, almost to the point of sending gas prices soaring even higher.

“I'm afraid that it could be some difficult times coming,” said Steve Crowder, president of Little River Energy Company in Cushing, Okla. “If the conflict is resolved, the Strait is open, shipping resumes, we'll dodge a bullet and we'll avoid some real problems. And if it drags on, it could be really tough. Yeah, real tough.”

Cushing lies between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, where a vast spiderweb of underground pipelines feed into one of the world's largest privately owned storage hubs for U.S. crude oil.

“As far as the eye can see, dozens of massive storage tanks dot the landscape. Oil industry analysts closely monitor how much crude oil is in these tanks. And right now, alarm bells are ringing,” said Lavandera.

Generally, the Cushing tanks can hold about 75 million barrels of oil, but the levels now have dropped to below 22 million because of Trump’s voluntary Iraq war and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. And analysts say that if these tanks are not replenished fast enough, in the weeks ahead Americans will be paying more for gas at the pump as international buyers and market forces price U.S. customers out of their own locally-produced oil.

Worse, when these tanks reach the 20 million mark, Lavandera said “it's like scraping the bottom of the barrel. The crude oil becomes an unusable sludge.”

From above, the ceilings of the tanks have dipped precariously.

“In the last 20 years. Anytime oil inventories at Cushing have reached levels this low, it's triggered historically high oil prices,” Lavandera added. “Energy executives at companies like Exxon and Chevron are warning that the United States is less than a month away from seeing gas prices shoot up.”

Lee Denny, a Cushing native and a former Oklahoma state representative, said she’s witnessed many oil booms and busts in Cushing. She only hopes Trump will end his war, open the Strait and allow oil producers to replenish inventories soon to prevent a price spike.

When asked, Denny could not say $5 a gallon gasoline could be avoided, however.

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