Colonial Pipeline says Line 2 pipeline restarted
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Colonial Pipeline Co on Monday said it restarted one of its fuel lines shut because of Hurricane Harvey, with another line scheduled to restart on Tuesday.
The company said it had restarted "Line 2" between Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana, as of 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), and remained on schedule to restart the segment covering the same area for "Line 1" on Tuesday.
Colonial is the biggest US fuel system, with pipelines that connect refineries along the US Gulf Coast to markets in the Northeast, transporting more than 3 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
With more pipelines coming on line, concerns about supply should ease. The storm took down nearly a quarter of US oil refining capacity, affected oil and gas platforms along the Gulf and lifted gasoline prices by more than 20 cents on average.
On Sunday, average retail prices rose again, to $2.621/gal, with weekly increases hitting 18% in Georgia and 19% in South Carolina, according to motorists advocacy group AAA.
As of Sunday, about 5.5% of the Gulf's oil production and 8.4% of the natural gas output remained shut, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said, while operators began inspecting facilities and resuming work.
NYMEX gasoline futures were down 3.59% at $1.6852/gal, after hitting a low of $1.6579, a level last seen on Aug. 25.
Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Steve Orlofsky
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