OREANDA-NEWS Officials expect gasoline supplies to reach shortage-stricken terminals across the southeast over the weekend after gasoline flow resumed on Colonial Pipeline's Line 1 late yesterday afternoon.

Fuel will move through a temporary bypass circumventing a broken section southwest of Birmingham, Alabama, to restore service to the main path for gasoline out of the US Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast and New York Harbor market.

Gasoline that temporarily moved through the company's distillates-bearing twin, Line 2, was out of that pipeline and the line had resumed normal distillates service, the company said today.

Colonial shut the 1.3mn bl Line 1 and the parallel, distillates bearing Line 2 on 9 September after a state employee discovered a strong gasoline odor at a remote mining site west of Pelham, Alabama. Both lines move fuel from terminals beginning near the Houston area to fuel distribution points throughout the southeast before terminating in Greensboro, North Carolina. The remainder of Colonial's 5,500-mile (8,851km) network moves fuel on to Linden, New Jersey.

Colonial restarted Line 2 on 10 September and split service on the line to carry gasoline while studying repairs.