Nearly 450,000 gallons of gasoline containing three times the acceptable level of ethanol was delivered to central Oklahoma retailers over the past week.
Tulsa-based Magellan Midstream Partners LP notified the Oklahoma Corporation Commission on Tuesday and advised that equipment failure at its Oklahoma City fuel distribution terminal is to blame.
“We had a piece of equipment fail, which allowed a higher than allowable content of ethanol get into gasoline that was delivered to retailers,” said Bruce Heine, a spokesman for Magellan. “This is not the retailers’ fault. This is our issue at Magellan. We’re doing the right thing by recapturing and replacing as quickly as possible and owning up to the incident.”
Magellan is determining which retail locations are impacted, although the company has listed 25 possible locations in Oklahoma, Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Lincoln, Love, Major, McClain, Pottawatomie, Seminole and Tulsa counties. Magellan is expected to release a complete list by Thursday.
The OCC will send inspectors to monitor the affected retail pumps.
“We will take whatever steps we can to see that the gas gets recovered and taken off the market and to assist in getting the word out,” said Matt Skinner, OCC spokesman. “Our inspectors will follow up to make sure the product has been taken out of service.”