NEW YORK, Sept 20 The U.S. government gave verbal approval for Colonial Pipeline Co to restart its main gasoline line on Wednesday, a federal official said, after the biggest leak on the line in almost two decades caused supply shortages and pushed pump prices higher.
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Colonial Pipeline announced Wednesday night that it had reopened the gasoline line. “As such, some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions”, the company said in the release. While Colonial expects to be able to resume gasoline deliveries by the end of the week, supply disruptions may continue for days, Colonial spokesman Steve Baker said.
For hard-hit Georgia, gas stations likely won’t return to business as usual until at least this weekend, said Richard Lewis, who heads the fuel and measures division with the state Department of Agriculture. The leak occurred in a rural part of Shelby County in Alabama.
The biggest refined products system in the United States restarted parts of the line a few days after a leak was discovered on September 9. “Now is the time to pull together as a state and to conserve fuel when it’s possible”. AAA reported Tuesday that Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia also saw prices climb since Monday.
This aerial photo shows a pair of water retention ponds at the site of a pipeline leak, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, near Helena, Ala.
Reports that gas prices had “substantially increased in some markets” led Gov. Nathan Deal to invoke an anti-price gouging law on Monday.
“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.
The leak, which spilled 250,000 gallons of gasoline into a detention pond, was detected September 9.
After the pipeline break in Alabama, average prices rose as much as 22 cents per gallon in neighboring Georgia.
The report does not identify the cause of the leak.
Colonial has estimated that 252,000 gallons to 336,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from the line.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Valdosta, Ga., Saturday was $2.02, unchanged from seven days earlier, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
In Roanoke, the average price is up 1 cent from Monday, also to $2.07.
People with the pipeline said it would construct a temporary one which will bypass the damaged section.
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Once the pipeline restarts, many shipments will be rerouted to southern locations in need of supply, which could result in short-term storage issues, the company said in a notice to shippers.
