Colonial Pipeline completed its installation of a 500-foot bypass on its leaking gas pipeline in Alabama Wednesday, allowing for gasoline to begin flowing again along the pipeline connection from Houston to the Northeast.
But in a statement Wednesday, Colonial said normal gas deliveries to service stations across the Southeast may not resume to normal until next week. As a result, gas shortages may remain at many service stations in Chattanooga and prices at the pump are likely to remain elevated from where they were before the discovery of the pipeline leak on Sept. 9.
The leak has forced the shut down for nearly two weeks of the pipeline that carries 1.3 million gallons a day of gasoline.
“Subsequent to restart, it is expected to take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal,” Colonial said in a report Wednesday. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions. Colonial continues to move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as possible and will continue to do so as markets return to normal.”
Fuel in pipelines moves at only about 5 mph, so the U.S. Energy Information Administration warned motorists that “some markets may still experience supply shortfalls several days after service is restored on Colonial Pipeline.
“Limited availability of gasoline at some local distribution terminals and the higher costs of alternative supply options will ultimately influence the retail price of gasoline,” the EIA said in its daily briefing Wednesday.
The average price of regular gas in Chattanooga on Wednesday was nearly $2.22 per gallon, its highest level in three months. Fuel prices are up 27 cents a gallon in the past week and are 36 cents a gallon higher than a month ago, according to the daily price survey of 170 service stations by the online fuel reporting service GasBuddy.com.
While prices appear to have peaked after the shut-down, the outages at some stations persisted.
The pipeline leak occurred in a wilderness area of Shelby County about 30 miles south of Birmingham, disrupting one of two Colonial Pipelines from Houston to Atlanta and up the east coast. The lines, carry fuel from refineries along the Gulf Coast.
The line that was shut down was used primarily for gasoline. After the leak was discovered, Colonial shut down that line and shifted some gasoline into the other line, which had been used mostly for diesel and other fuels.
The cause of the leak is still not known, and it won’t be until the pipe has been dug up and inspected, according to Steve Baker, a spokesman for Colonial. “The cause can’t be determined until we dig up the pipe and inspect it. Right now it is still at least partially underground.”
The problem in the five-decade-old pipe did not appear to be a fitting or valve, but the company can’t yet be sure about that, he said.
The leak spilled up to 330,000 gallons of gasoline into the Alabama wilderness, most of it flowing downhill to a small retention pond.