Gas prices hold steady in Pee Dee

FLORENCE — As reports of closed and possibly hurricane damaged Gulf Coast refineries flooded in, many Pee Dee residents discovered Saturday that gasoline prices remained relatively unchanged from Friday, before Hurricane Ike made landfall.

Many gasoline stations around Florence were selling regular unleaded fuel for about 3.99 per gallon Saturday. The Exxon station at South Cashua and Celebration Blvd. sold regular unleaded fuel for $3.90.

An employee for that station said gasoline prices had not increase from the time shortly before the hurricane struck Texas.

“These people make a big deal out of nothing, you know?” he said. “It’s not going to go up.”

According to Financial Times newspaper reports, the prolonged loss of production from the Gulf of Mexico, which produces 20 percent of the country’s oil and gasoline, were sure to put upward pressure on oil prices.

The highest gasoline price recorded in Florence by the Morning News was the Sav-Way gasoline station in the city’s Five Points area. That station advertised gasoline at $4.59 for regular unleaded fuel.

While Florence County residents, no doubt, still are on the lookout for the most reasonable gasoline prices in their area, sheriff’s deputies are on the lookout for fueling stations trying to take advantage of
the uncertainty of the situation.

Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone said his office has been flooded with calls from residents reporting price gouging.

So far, deputies are investigating five cases of price gouging, Boone said.

Sheriff’s deputies are riding the county looking for more cases of the crime, he said. Authorities probably won’t arrest gougers on the spot, but the cases will, however, be turned over to the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, Boone said.