The state Department of Transportation might halt some projects because contractors don't have the fuel to continue work. A heavy crude oil shortage already is forcing one of the state's largest road-building companies to close asphalt plants.

Danny Shealy, director of construction for the Transportation Department, said he spent five hours Thursday talking with contractors about the fuel shortage's impact on highway projects across the state.

"It might be getting to the point now that we shut down a couple of the projects," he said. "We can't get fuel."

Shealy said the decision to stop work would depend on fuel availability. The contractors he talked heavy crude oil to drive burners at 11 plants to mix gravel, sand and liquid asphalt to make paving material to finish roads. Each plant consumes as much as 6,000 gallons of fuel daily.

Fant said the heavy oil shortage is linked to Hurricane Katrina. Natural gas companies also warned that supplies might be interrupted but offered no explanation for the shortage, he said.

A Sloan asphalt plant in Anderson ran out of fuel Thursday. Another plant was expected to run dry Thursday night. A third is expected to shut down tonight, Fant said.

"We're calling everybody we can to try to beg, borrow and steal fuel," he said.

Company officials are hoping the shortage will ease by the middle of next week. No work over the Labor Day weekend at any of the company's three-dozen projects will help stretch Sloan's remaining fuel supplies, Fant said.

"We are fortunate that we hadn't planned to work Saturday or Monday," he said. "We certainly hope something frees up by that time. We're going to be hurting then."

The Association of General Contractors, a trade group that represents about 3,000 highway building and utility contractors in the Carolinas, recently surveyed a half-dozen large contractors across South Carolina and found that many are not able to get full supplies of fuel.

Sammy Hendrix, the South Carolina branch director of the association, said contractors reported having just enough fuel to continue working for about a week. If the companies can't get fuel, many of the projects would have to stand still for a while, he said.