The auto club AAA reports that gas prices continue to climb in several southern states after a pipeline leak in Alabama slowed the flow of fuel across the South.
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When Line 1 restarts, the company said it will take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal.
Compared to last week, AAA said, the average price per gallon in Georgia was up 16 cents.
Including the change in gas prices in Alabama during the past week, prices yesterday were 6.1 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 11.8 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.
AAA says prices could increase by as much as 20 cents before returning to more seasonable levels.
In a Tuesday press release, Colonial Pipeline said it had completed the construction and positioning of a bypass segment to go around the leak site.
“[The] restart of the main gasoline line is a key milestone”, Baker said.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal issued an executive order Monday aimed at preventing price gouging. The price climbed almost 7 cents since Monday in more rural areas of Georgia.
But Wilmington appears to have weathered the fuel crunch better than most of regions of North Carolina, with most Port City-area stations Wednesday appearing to have all grades of gas available. The average price of a gallon of gas in Baltimore was $2.24 on Tuesday, up 9 cents from last week, according to AAA’s analysis.
“We certainly expect the gas prices to increase, certainly while this line is under fix and not at full capacity”, AAA spokesman Garrett Townsend said Monday. It is important to note that pump prices could vary dramatically among retailers.
Each day, Colonial Pipeline delivers more than 100 million gallons of refined products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, home heating oil and fuels for the US military, to markets between Houston and New York City.
The preliminary report does not identify the cause as the federal investigation continues.
Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline has acknowledged that between 252,000 gallons and 336,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from a pipeline near Helena, Ala., since the spill was first detected September 9.
The Colonial Pipeline runs from Houston to NY to bring gasoline produced in Texas and Louisiana to much of the rest of the nation.
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The U.S. Transportation Department is investigating the pipeline, which was built in the 1960s, and has also required Colonial to perform testing at the site. “Now that we’re up and running, in a week or two, we may have a little bit of an oversupply in East Coast gasoline”.
