Some 24% of retail gasoline stations in the New York metropolitan area had no gasoline available for sale as of Tuesday due to supply disruptions caused to by Hurricane Sandy, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The figure is unchanged from Monday, down from about 27% on Sunday and much less than the two-thirds of retail stations in the New York area that had no gasoline for sale on Friday.
"Today's number includes stations that reported no gasoline available and those we could not reach after numerous attempts, and consequently assume that the station was closed," the EIA said on its website.
Of the stations sampled, 76% had gasoline available for sale, unchanged from Monday, while 17% had no gasoline supplies, down from 24% on Monday. The EIA said 7% did not respond to attempts to contact them, up from 0% Monday. "None reported they were not selling gasoline because they had no power," the EIA said.
While the EIA's report reflects the New York metropolitan area, "the composite numbers may not reflect the specific experience of more severely affected areas like coastal New Jersey, Staten Island, and parts of Long Island."
As reported on prior days, EIA was unable to contact a significant, though declining portion of the stations surveyed, despite numerous attempts.
"In fact, there could be many reasons EIA was unable to contact these stations, including the stations' being closed for lack of power or fuel, the stations' being too busy to answer the telephone, and a failure of the telephone system," the EIA said.
