Colonial Pipeline said Tuesday evening that it continues to make progress in its around-the-clock efforts to return a 5,500-mile-long Southeastern fuel artery to full-service. The company was able to bring more lateral lines online yesterday (operating manually) to deliver existing inventories to markets along the pipeline.
“Markets experiencing supply constraints and/or not serviced by other fuel delivery systems are being prioritized,” the company said via statement. “We are collaborating with the Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate market conditions to support this prioritization.”
Some Love’s locations – mostly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina – are experiencing intermittent diesel and gasoline outages, and the company identified another nearly 40 stations at-risk of fuel outages in those states plus Virginia. Pilot Companies said it has seen spikes in gas demand in the Southeast, but diesel is holding steady in most markets. The company identified more than 10 stations in the Carolinas, Florida, Virginia and Georgia that have experienced some degree of service disruption.
In preparation for its system restart, Colonial Pipeline said it has taken delivery of an additional 2 million barrels from refineries for deployment upon restart.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a regional emergency declaration to waive hours of service regulations for drivers hauling fuel and other refined petroleum products in Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
“Actions taken by the Federal Government to issue a temporary hours of service exemption for motor carriers and drivers transporting refined products across Colonial’s footprint and actions taken by several Governors to lift weight restrictions on tanker trucks should help alleviate local supply disruptions,” the company said. “This is in addition to the Reid Vapor Pressure wavier issued today by the U.S. EPA that will also help alleviate supply constraints in several states serviced by our system.”
The Colonial Pipeline supplies about 45% of Southeast’s gasoline, but that was ground to a near halt with a targeted cyberattack over the weekend.
Original article provided by: https://www.ccjdigital.com/business/article/15065486/carriers-earn-top-honors-from-walmart
