Gas station owners are opposed to a proposal to reverse the flow in part of a gasoline pipeline serving Butler County and Western Pennsylvania, but area legislators are siding with the pipeline owner, who is seeking state approval for the project.

Changing the flow of the Laurel Pipeline from west to east could result in higher consumer prices, according to several gas station owners who have filed their objections to the reversal with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Buckeye Partners, the Houston company that owns the pipeline and area legislators disagree. They say the reversal could lower prices at the pump and reduce dependence on petroleum from overseas.

Buckeye Partners wants to reverse the direction of flow to allow gas and diesel fuel from refineries in the Chicago area and the Midwest to flow east to a terminal in Altoona. The rest of the pipeline would continue to flow west.

Currently, the pipeline flows west from refineries in Philadelphia and from shipments to New York Harbor to the Pittsburgh market terminal in Coraopolis.

The flow in the section of pipeline between Coraopolis and Altoona would be reversed under Buckeye’s proposal.

The PUC is expected to act on a recommendation in the case from an administrative law judge early next year.

The pipeline now brings gasoline and diesel fuel west to Pittsburgh from refineries in Philadelphia and the New York Harbor. The reversal would allow product to flow east to Pittsburgh from Midwestern refineries.

However, another pipeline also brings gas from refineries in Chicago and the Midwest to Pittsburgh. And cutting off the flow from the east would eliminate a source of fuel and possibly result in higher prices, said Dan Donovan, communications director for GetGo. The company has seven stores in Butler County and more than 70 in Western Pennsylvania.

“Having two sources is better than just one. We are really at a great advantage geographically. It benefits customers and we see no reason for that to change,” Donovan said. “Fuel from the east is cheaper eight to 10 months a year. The reversal can only have a negative impact on fuel prices in our opinion.”

GetGo, Sheetz and Gulf Oil are members of coalition of businesses opposing the reversal.

“We feel we currently have these two sources that benefit Pittsburgh. Competitive prices benefit the customer. Eliminating one source will increase prices,” Donovan said.

Greg Johnston, director of terminal operations for Gulf Oil, said gas from the east is cheaper eight months of the year and gas from the west is cheaper four months of the year.

“There are extreme differences between the two. We can get gas from either place based on price. If we decide product from Chicago is cheaper we can get it from Chicago. Because you have so many options it drives the price down,” Johnston said. “When there’s no options that will drive prices up.”

Reversing the flow of the pipeline to deliver gas from the west across state lines would make it an interstate pipeline, which means it would become the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and not the state, he said.

Under FERC regulations, Buckeye could change the direction of the flow anytime, Johnston said.

Mike Lorenz, executive vice president of Sheetz, said Midwestern refineries can’t fully supply the area now.

“The Midwest has full access to the Pittsburgh market today and still only provides 50 percent of its product needs. The Midwest can’t supply all of its year-round demand and must ship product up from the Gulf Coast to supplement. It’s more expensive to ship Gulf Coast product from this direction to Pittsburgh and the pipeline from the Gulf has already been constrained. So if you increase the demand for a product economic principles say prices must rise to increase the supply to meet it,” Lorenz said.

He said reversing the flow of Laurel would eliminate competition from the refineries in Philadelphia, the New York Harbor market and the Gulf Coast, which can reach Pittsburgh from the east at cheaper tariff rates than the from the west.

“Pittsburgh will essentially become an oligopoly. It will be a captive market in the hands of a few Mid-west refineries,” Lorenz said.

If the pipeline is reversed and a problem occurs at a Midwest refinery or a pipeline, or a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, price spikes will be higher and last longer without a pipeline from the east, he said.

David Arnold, Buckeye vice president of domestic pipeline services, said the price of gas and diesel from western refineries has dropped and will continue to fall and those refineries send more product to Pittsburgh than eastern refineries, which use crude oil from overseas to make fuel.

Refining capacity fell 26 percent in the east and increased 10 percent in the west over the last 10 years and prices from western refineries fell seven cents below eastern prices during that time, according to Buckeye.

“Our experts say five to eight cents less due to lower cost crude from shale and the oil sands in Canada. North American crude has replaced foreign crude (as what) Midwestern refineries are using,” Arnold said.

Last year, east cost refineries had a capacity of 1.2 million barrels a day and Midwest refineries had a capacity of 3.9 million, according to Buckeye.

Some of the 500,000 barrels of gas and diesel delivered to New York Harbor from overseas refineries ends up in the pipeline going to Pittsburgh, he said.

Despite the declines, eastern refineries have enough capacity to supply Pittsburgh with fuel. But cheaper product prices from western refineries attracts pipeline operators.

“There is abundant capacity from the east, but shippers are choosing to ship less because it is being supplanted by less expensive product from the west,” Arnold said.

Buckeye Partners and Sunoco have extended pipelines from refineries in the western United States to Pittsburgh, he said.

“The industry is still looking for additional capacity from the west,” Arnold said.

State Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14, said he supports the reversal because he believes using fuel produced in the United States makes the country less dependent on foreign products and could lead to lower consumer prices.

“The gasoline produced in the U.S. In the Midwest and western states would be more available to the Pittsburgh market and that could lower prices. I think the availability of American made or Canadian made fuel in the Pittsburgh market would mean more American made product and less dependency on the Middle East,” Marshall said.

He said he believes some of the fuel coming from eastern refineries is made using imported products.

After submitting a letter supporting the reversal to the PUC, he said he met with representatives from Giant Eagle and United Steelworkers, who oppose the reversal, because they say it would negatively impact the refineries in Philadelphia and the Gulf Coast.

State Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47, said he has several reasons for supporting the reversal.

“I believe partial reversal of the Laurel Pipeline can bring significant cost savings to consumers through lower gasoline and diesel fuel prices. Our country’s energy revolution is driving the need for lower-cost, domestic fuel from American refineries, and the reversal of this pipeline would provide just that, not just to Western Pennsylvania, but to the entire state,” Vogel said.

He also said pipelines provide safest method for transporting fuel and they should be used when possible. He said he’d rather see trucks hauling sections of pipelines than fuel.