With gas supplies tight in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, petroleum industry officials say panic-buying of fuel is worsening supply problems.

Some Charleston-area gas stations ran out of fuel Wednesday night and Thursday, and drivers occasionally had to wait in long lines to fill up their vehicles.

Area gas retailers said they'd have ample supplies if drivers would stick to their normal fill-up routines instead of hoarding fuel.

"People panicking is where the problem is," said Eddie Buck Jr., president of Jupiter Holdings LLC, which operates 11 Blue Water convenience stores in South Carolina.As consumers try to stock up on gas, stations are selling double their normal volume and are having trouble replenishing supplies quickly, Buck said. A few Blue Water stations ran out of regular gas Thursday morning but were able to restock later in the day, he noted.

Gov. Mark Sanford on Thursday said South Carolina's gas supply was down to a third of its normal level and is likely to remain so for the next few weeks. That results largely from disruptions in two pipelines, the Colonial and the Plantation, which serve much of the East Coast and shut down after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast early Monday morning.

Both pipeline companies have said they should be pumping fuel again before this weekend.

The supply problem is less dire along the coast because much of the area's fuel is delivered through the ports rather than the pipelines.

Local gas retailers get most their fuel from two terminals at the Port of Charleston. Those terminals allocate a certain amount of fuel each day to various oil companies, such as BP, Exxon and Citgo.

Once a company uses its fuel allotment for the day, it can't get more until the next day.

Normally, there's enough product to go around. But with the pipelines closed, fuel distributors from other parts of the state are looking here to get more gas.

"As (pipeline) supplies dwindle to nothing, the industry is migrating to coast port terminals," said Jeff King, a regional manager for trucking company Kenan Transport Co. King's company hauls gas to stations in South Carolina and Georgia.

Limited supplies coupled with higher-than-normal consumer demand mean some stations are temporarily running out of gas, King said.

"If there wasn't the panic buying going on, there would be no supply problems in our area," he said.

Adding to the problem is a shortage of truck drivers, he said.

State officials pushing to get more gas into South Carolina have asked for federal waivers of regulations involving how long fuel tanker drivers can be on the road and how much trucks can weigh.

King said that for safety reasons his company won't push its truckers to drive extra-long hours.

Rick Todd, president and chief executive of the South Carolina Trucking Association, said gas stations around the state are rationing fuel, limiting truckers to 50 gallons per visit. A full tank holds between 200 and 300 gallons, he noted.

Whatever fuel motorists are looking for, they're finding it comes at a steep price.

Regular gas at many local stations hovered around $3 a gallon Thursday. In parts of the state that rely on pipeline supplies, such as Greenville, motorists were paying more than $4 a gallon.

"We're trying to keep it (gas) under $3 for as long as possible," said Bob Walsh, owner of a convenience store in North Charleston. "But when it gets to the point that we're not making a profit, like anyone we have to raise the price. We've got to pay our bills, too."

The increases are unlikely to stop immediately. Gasoline futures rose another 15 cents Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Some industries are asking for government assistance in the wake of rising fuel costs.

The South Carolina Farm Bureau on Thursday requested that the state protect farmers from the rising costs and short supplies. Many farmers' fuel use peaks this time of year as they harvest crops such as corn, soybeans, tobacco and cotton. Farmers in rural areas have reported that their local fuel supplies are dry, the bureau said.

Petroleum experts said fuel supplies are expected to remain tight in the near future.

Kay Clamp, executive director of the South Carolina Petroleum Council, said the industry is facing the worst set of circumstances imaginable because of the hurricane damage.

"Right now we have very little, if any, product coming into the state," Clamp said. "So what people are seeing that's available at the pump is probably from reserves that were there, but there are not a lot of reserves."