NORTH BALTIMORE – With intense cold gripping the region, those in Wood County who heat their homes with
propane should brace for the possibility of supplies running out.
There is no lack of available propane in the United States, but companies are having difficulty keeping
up with demand due to transportation problems, according to George Walton, chief operating officer of
Prism Propane.
Those problems could continue through February or all winter.
"This is not going to be solved overnight," Walton said during a Wednesday news conference at
Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative, Prism’s parent company.
Prism is restricting propane purchases to 30 percent of capacity. Walton said many residential customers
have 500-gallon tanks that can be filled up to 400 gallons, putting their cap for a purchase at 120
gallons.
Based on typical usage, which he said is around 10 to 12 gallons per day, that’s not much given sustained
cold temperatures forecasted for Northwest Ohio.
Those who rely on propane should conserve by reducing thermostats to 64 degrees and prepare for a
potentially-ongoing shortage by getting a backup source such as electric heaters, Walton said.
The shortage is the result of what Prism termed a "perfect storm." A heavy and late crop-drying
season increased demand for propane. Around the same time, a new pipeline that supplies the gas to the
Midwest and East Coast was reversed to carry other products for export, and another pipeline was shut
down for repairs, according to information from the National Propane Gas Association.
"When you combine the demand we’ve seen, all coming at a time when inventories weren’t up to speed
to where they were in past years, it created this crisis," Walton said.
Companies across the eastern United States are now scrambling to find transportation solutions for gas
that is available elsewhere but unable to reach suppliers here. To address the problem, Gov. John Kasich
declared an emergency this week that removes the travel limitations of truck drivers before they must
spend extended time off the road, and national restrictions were lifted as well.
Prism has seen its supply deliveries slow from 10 to 15 per week to as few as one or two. A shipment
arrived Wednesday morning from Alabama, and Walton said another trucking company was contracted to begin
bringing propane from South Carolina, though the trip will only net two loads per week, or about 19,000
gallons.
"We’re going to get them on the road, probably in the morning," Walton said, conceding that
it’s unlikely such trips would be able to keep up with demand if cold temperatures persist.
"If we get some severe temperatures sustained over a long period of time, I have to be very clear: I
don’t know how long we can continue this and keep adequate gas supply out there to our customers to keep
them with heat."
Walton said he’s been in touch with other companies throughout the state to "step over competition
lines and look for opportunities where we can keep each other’s customers with some gas if this thing
gets worse."
At least one other propane distributor in Wood County was also experiencing difficulty meeting demand.

TJ Propane of Weston, which has about 2,500 customers, had its supply cut by at least 50 percent and as
much as two-thirds, as refineries in Toledo are only outputting about half as much as normal, said
manager Michael Long.SClB"It seems like things are pretty tight out there. We have been fortunate
to this point that we are still getting gas, even if it’s not as much as we want."
The company is stocked enough to supply for about 10 days and has not imposed any fill-restrictions on
customers, but Long said discussions have begun about doing so.
"If it came down to that, we would probably start rationing it out," Long said.