Colonial Pipeline preparing for late Aug. 30 restart after Hurricane Ida

Colonial Pipeline plans to restart fuel flows late Aug. 30 after completing safety assessments in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, restoring the nation's primary fuel artery for much of the Southeast and the East Coast.

Colonial Pipeline had temporarily shut down its Lines 1 and 2 systems from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina ahead of Category 4 Ida. Colonial's Lines 3 and 4 from North Carolina to New Jersey never ceased operations.

Colonial said service to Lines 1 and 2 should be restored the evening of Aug. 30, pending successfully completion of all restart protocols, one day after Ida swept through Louisiana.

"We want to express our sympathy and concern for the many people who have suffered tremendously because of this hurricane," said Wes Dunbar, Colonial vice president of operations, in a statement. "I also want to thank those who are helping get Colonial back in service as quickly and safely as possible. We know the fuels delivered by our pipeline are important to emergency responders, as well as to our daily lives. We are thankful for the coordination from our local, state and federal partners for their assistance as we work to restore our pipeline into service."

Colonial Pipeline typically delivers more than 100 million gal/d of fuels. Colonial stretches more than 5,500 miles from the Houston refining hub to New York Harbor, supplying about 45% of all the gasoline and diesel fuel consumed on the East Coast.

Product typically moves at 3 to 5 mph through the pipeline.

Front-month NYMEX RBOB futures had opened sharply higher late Aug. 29 because of the Colonial closure and the loss of Gulf oil production.

Assuming Colonial comes back online as scheduled, there will not be any fuel shortages unless supplies are exacerbated by panic buying, said fuel analyst Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy.com.

Colonial also noted that fuel supplied had continued to be available throughout the Southeast from the numerous terminals located along the supply route.

Category 4 Hurricane Ida devastated much of southern Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, leaving well more than 1 million electricity customers without power for the foreseeable future.

In advance of the storm, about 95% of the US Gulf's oil and gas production was shut-in, and roughly 2.2 million b/d of oil refining capacity was closed.

This was the first major disruption for Colonial since May when the entire pipeline was temporarily shut down because of a serious ransomware cyberattack.