Gas Shortages Continue as Pipeline Restart Expected

Colonial Pipeline issued a statement Wednesday morning saying that the gasoline pipeline should restart Wednesday night, but that shortages will continue.

Based on operational progress made overnight and the anticipated schedule of work ahead, Colonial Pipeline projects that Line 1 will be restarted this evening.

Subsequent to restart, it is expected to take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal.  Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions

The restart comes after Colonial built a 500 foot long bypass line to move gasoline around the damaged section of Line 1 which carries 40% of the east coast’s gasoline supply from Texas refineries to terminals as far north as New York.

Experts  have said that it could take until early next week for the supply chain to fully recover from the September 9th spill and the outage that followed.

Jeff Teller of Durham, NC said that on Wednesday morning, he passed at least 12 gas stations that were completely out of gas before finding one where he could fill up. “I still had a quarter tank, but  not knowing when things were going to get normal again, I was starting to worry I wouldn’t be able to get gas.”