Colonial Pipeline Restarts Gasoline Line After Georgia Leak Repair

Colonial Pipeline restarted its main gasoline pipeline Friday, restoring fuel flow from the U.S. Gulf Coast to East Coast markets after a leak earlier last week in Paulding County, Georgia.
“Colonial Pipeline safely completed repairs Friday morning on our gasoline pipeline, Line 1, in Paulding County, Ga., and returned the line to service,” the company said in a statement.
Line 1, one of two mainlines in the more than 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline system, was shut Monday night after the company received reports of a leak.
The pipeline delivers about 1.5 million barrels of gasoline daily from Houston to storage tanks in Greensboro, North Carolina, from where the fuel is distributed locally or shipped to markets as far north as the New York Harbor.
Market disruptions from the outage were minimal, although supply had tightened in some areas, U.S. fuel distributor Mansfield told clients earlier Friday, according to a Reuters report.
U.S. gasoline futures prices eased about 0.1% to $2.12 per gallon by 12:56 a.m. EST.
“It will take the better part of next week to get terminals fully caught up after missing the better part of four days’ worth of batches,” fuel distributor TACenergy said.
However, demand is also likely to slow as fuel terminals that had filled up “just in case” will now have extra inventory to clear, TACenergy added.
Colonial said that site work, including remediation efforts, will continue in Paulding County in coordination with state and local agencies.
The company did not provide details on how the line was damaged or the amount of fuel released.