Colonial 'preparing' for Line 1 repair

OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2016.  Colonial Pipeline was today "preparing for excavation and repair" five days after discovering a leak that released 6,000 bl of gasoline and shut its major gasoline trunk line connecting US Gulf coast refiners to the Atlantic coast and New York Harbor market.

The company plans to use its parallel, distillates-bearing Line 2 to continue some gasoline service along a route from terminals on the Texas coast to a Colonial terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 5,500-mile (8,851km) pipeline system supplies products into Tennessee from Georgia and moves on from Greensboro up to Linden, New Jersey.

Colonial shut the gasoline-bearing Line 1 and Line 2 on 9 September after a mining operation reported a strong gasoline smell in a remote area west of a terminal in Pelham, Alabama.

Line 2 was restarted the next day, but Line 1 remains shut.

The company yesterday expected to restart Line 1 by the weekend. Colonial also said it would resume operating Line 1 segments on either side of the break, and would use Line 2 to resume some gasoline service at the cost of distillates flows.

Shippers on Line 2 would not be allowed to switch their allocations to gasoline, the company said.