Colonial Pipeline restarted Line 1 on Sunday
(Reuters) Colonial Pipeline said Line 1 began shipping gasoline between Houston and Linden, New Jersey, on Sunday morning for the first time since a deadly October 31 explosion and fire near Helena, Alabama.
The outage of Line 1, which can carry 1.3 MMbpd of gasoline from the US Gulf Coast to the New York area roiled wholesale gasoline markets all week and boosted retail prices across the southeastern United States.
In a statement posted on a company website on Sunday, Colonial said it would take three days following the restart for gasoline shipments to begin arriving at the Linden terminal.
One worker was killed and five other members of a maintenance crew were injured on October 31 when a backhoe punched a hole in Line 1, sending a more than 200-foot (61-meter) column of fire up from the damaged pipe.
The US Environmental Protection Agency granted waivers to allow Colonial to mix different grades of gasoline once shipments resume.
The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline is the largest US refined products pipeline system and can carry more than 3 MMbbl of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel between the Gulf Coast and the New York Harbor area.
Two US Gulf Coast refineries, Exxon Mobil Corp's Baytown, Texas refinery and Total SA's Port Arthur Texas, refinery were reported to have cut gasoline production due to the Colonial Pipeline outage.
The October 31 blast is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board, the EPA and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration along with state agencies in Alabama.
Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Alan Crosby
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