As irritating for most motorists as are high gasoline prices, even more worrisome recently has been that many service stations, especially in the Southeast, at times have been running out of gas.

The Associated Press reported Monday, "A hurricane-related disruption in gasoline supplies prompted jittery drivers from Atlanta to Nashville to top off their fuel tanks more than usual, causing sporadic shortages and temporary shutdowns of stations. These closures only magnified the problem, of course, leading to more shortages, which sent local prices skyrocketing."

Asked to describe the gasoline shortage situation, Marylee A. Booth, executive director of the Tennessee Oil Marketers Association, said Monday the shortages being felt, especially in the Southeast, are the result of the continuing impact of Hurricane Gustav's shutdown of oil production in the Gulf of Mexcio and the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

The hurricane hit the United States on Sept. 1, but production facilities were shut down several days in advance of its hitting the Gulf Coast, and have taken time to be restored, even when not damaged.

The Tennessee Oil Marketers Assocation reported, as of Monday, that all but two of the oil refineries in the Gulf region now have resumed production, so the scarcity situation should begin ease.

Booth referred to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) report on Friday, Sept. 26.

DOE said, "A total of 179 (oil) production platforms, or 25.8 percent of the Gulf's manned platforms, remain evacuated. Personnel from three rigs, representing 2.6 percent of the 116 (rigs) operating in the region, remain evacuated....

"On Sept. 25, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources reported that 53,364 barrels per day, or 34 percent of the normal Louisiana oil production, has been restored.

Allen Johnson, owner of Greeneville Oil & Petroleum, which operates 20 stations locally and 20 more stations elsewhere in this region, as well as supplying 30 other stations regionally, said in an interview Monday that the nation's oil production capacity still is only at about 60 to 70 percent of capacity.

He predicted it will take "a week or two" for the gas-shortage problem to end.

"The situation is still touch and go," Johnson said, in terms of availablity of gasoline.

He added that the demand for gas here has been exacerbated by many motorists from western North Carolina driving to get here to buy gas they can't find in their own communities.

Johnson said many of his company's gas stations have been reduced lately to selling just a single price category of gas, usually regular.

Chris Marsh, president of March Petroleum, which operates six gas stations here and 13 other stations toward Knoxville, said there have been days recently when his stations have run out of gas.

He said the gas availablity situation locally "is still fairly tight" and his company "is at the mercy" of its suppliers.

Don Lindsey, spokesman for the American Automobile Association's East Tennessee office in Knoxville, said Monday, "We're hearing that western North Carolina, some locations in Georgia (Atlanta in particular), and Nashville still have less availability (of gasoline) than most anywhere else.

"That said, we (AAA) are advising that there is fuel in every market, but that it might take several stops to find it in some locations.

"We suggest filling up at the first available location when the tank reaches the halfway point."