This aerial photo shows a pair of water retention ponds at the site of a pipeline leak, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, near Helena, Ala.
Advertisement
Fuel price-tracking service GasBuddy.com says unleaded prices are up 3 cents overnight in Johnson City with regular unleaded rising to $2.08 a gallon.
Colonial Pipeline Co. plans to restart the largest USA gasoline line late Wednesday, ending nearly two weeks of curtailed shipments that have driven up pump prices and wiped out supplies at gasoline stations in the East and Southeast.
Though the pipeline that caused those shortages is now flowing again, Colonial warns that it could be “several days” before supplies catch up, and that price increases and shortages could continue in the meantime.
The company has estimated that 252,000 gallons to 336,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from the line.
Colonial has tied in a bypass connector that will move fuel around a segment of its line that sprung a leak September 9.
“Colonial is attempting to resume gasoline operations to all locations as soon as possible and to equitably distribute supply”, the company said in the notice. The shutdown of the pipeline led to dry pumps at gas stations in Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas despite executive orders by governors across the South to suspend limits on trucking hours.
The company says they expect it to take several days for the fuel deliver supply chain to return back to normal.
Advertisement
‘We thank the driving public for continued patience as fuel retailers come back to normal levels, ‘ said Ikard. The line runs through distribution centers in Atlanta and Greensboro, N.C. before stretching up the Eastern Seaboard to New York Harbor. The damaged section of the 1.3 million-barrel-a-day line that connects the refining hub of the Gulf Coast to the East Coast has been shut for more than 12 days.
