Back Online: Colonial Pipeline Now Operational...But There's a Catch

Matt Vespa | May 12, 2021 6:30 PM

Colonial Pipeline suffered a devastating cyberattack last weekend. It had to shut down its operations. The pipeline supplies 45 percent of the fuel to the eastern United States. Initially, there were reassurances that no major disruptions would occur and that the pipeline’s operations would be restored within the week. What was buried in this story is that Alabama north through Baltimore could experience shortages of gas.

Gasoline Outages by state, percent of all stations without gasoline:
AL 7%
WASH DC 10%
FL 11%
GA 43%
KY 2%
MD 11%
MS 5%
NC 65%
SC 43%
TN 16%
VA 44%
WV 4%
— Patrick De Haan ???? (@GasBuddyGuy) May 12, 2021

Well, that’s happened. Full-blown panic has engulfed North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and other states along Colonial Pipeline's 5,500-mile track. Today, there was coverage of long lines at gas stations, people stocking up on fuel, and stations declaring they were totally out of gas for sale. The days of the oil embargo were rehashed. Were we near the point of rationing? Maybe select days where people with license plates ending in an even or odd number can purchase fuel? The panic was spreading but fear no more. The pipeline is back online, but the hiccup is that it’ll take a week for the supply chain to return to normal (via NYT):

The operator of Colonial Pipeline said on Wednesday that it had started to resume pipeline operations.
“It will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” the company said on its website. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period.”
The pipeline, which stretches from Texas to New Jersey, had been shut down since Friday after a ransomware attack.
Over the last few days, Colonial has opened segments of the pipeline manually to relieve some supply pressures in a few states, including Maryland and New Jersey. But anxiety has persisted despite the assertions of industry analysts that the impact of the shutdown would remain relatively minor as long as the artery was fully restored soon.

So, if you filled up Sunday or Monday of this week, rest easy. For those waiting in those lines who filled up, you still did what was right. If you’re traveling this weekend and didn’t get gas, well—you might have missed the boat. The good news is that by next week—things should be returning to normal. It’ll take time.