Colonial Line 1 restart this evening
The company was diverting nominations to southeastern stublines and terminals across its 5,500-mile (8,851km) system to supply fuel distributors abruptly cut off almost two weeks ago by a leak discovered in Alabama. It would take several more days for deliveries across its system to return to normal, the company said.
"Colonial is attempting to resume gasoline operations to all locations as soon as possible and to equitably distribute supply," the company said today in a notice to shippers.
The pipeline operator yesterday completed hydrostatic testing of the segment's pressure capabilities and x-ray inspections of welds used to put a 500ft, 36-inch diameter bypass in place, according to an update filed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Line 1 provides the largest and often cheapest path for gasoline in the southern portion of a pipeline network stretching from Houston, Texas, to Linden, New Jersey.
Line 1 and a parallel, distillates-bearing Line 2, connect Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina, and numerous stub lines supplying smaller terminals in between.
Colonial planned to operate the bypass at a lower pressure but to use drag-reducing agents to continue Line 1's same, full capacity.
It will be a number of days before gasoline deliveries begin arriving at fuel distribution points through northern Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina cut off by the sudden loss of gasoline supplies on 9 September. Gasoline shipments diverted to Line 2 beginning 14 September took roughly four days to begin arriving.
With throughputs slashed over the past two weeks, shippers turned to waterborne deliveries and terminals used long-haul trucks to retrieve gasoline. A Virginia fuel distributor reported traveling 280 miles to find gasoline in what the head of that state's fuel marketing association called the worst shortage in his 17-year career.
US Atlantic coast gasoline inventories fell by 8.5mn bl last week — the region's largest weekly drop in 26 years of Energy Information Administration records.
Volumes especially plunged in the southeastern region stretching from Georgia to West Virginia, where stocks dropped by almost 6mn bl in that area's largest weekly decline over the same 26-year period. Stockpiles in the Atlantic coast subregion that includes New York fell by a more typical 2.3mn bl. The drop was large for the season but roughly the same as a decline seen less than a month ago, based on EIA data.
US Gulf coast gasoline inventories last week increased by 4.8mn bl amid the outage, and distillates inventories increased by 2.2mn bl. Refineries maintained crude rates but the region's gasoline production, a figure that includes both refining and blenders, fell by 7pc to 2.1mn b/d.
Colonial must next cut away a damaged section of pipe discovered to have released an estimated 8,000 bl of gasoline at a remote mining site. Workers have recovered gasoline that pooled in mining retention ponds, and estimate another 6,500 bl of material evaporated, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency has not determined how much gasoline remains in the soil around the pipe. Fumes from fuel released into soil around the break slowed excavation and led officials to approve the bypass.
Colonial still plans to remove and permanently restore the broken section of pipe. The company has not yet determined a cause for the release.
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