At this year's ASPO conference, I was twice asked about the gasoline supply situation - once at a panel session and once by a reporter. At the time, there were gas shortages throughout the Southeast, and some of the speakers gave the impression that this was the beginning of the end: Gas shortages are here to stay, and we are on the verge of the entire country running out of gasoline. There were a number of predictions along the lines of "It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

While first discussing the source of the gas shortages - low inventories followed by a hurricane that sidelined a significant source of refining capacity - I answered the question as follows: "This is a temporary event. We will see imports start to pick up and fill the shortfall. We will see refining capacity start to come back online, and I predict that a month from now gasoline inventories will be higher than they are today."