NEW YORK: Colonial Pipeline Company, the biggest US fuel system, delayed reopening a segment of its system in Texas that was shut due to Hurricane Harvey, increasing worries about rising retail prices and the domestic distribution of petrol and distillates.
The company, which had originally scheduled a restart yesterday for the segment going from Houston to Hebert, Texas, said it planned to reopen the distillates line today. The line would be ready to move petrol tomorrow, it added.
Colonial’s 5,500-mile system begins in Houston and ends in Linden, New Jersey, serving seven airports and other facilities. The pipeline hauls more than three million barrels per day of refined products from the Gulf Coast refining hub to the populous US Northeast.
The firm also planned to allow shippers to pump transitionary-grade Gulf Coast CBOB petrol, as refiners ran short of the summer grade product due to Hurricane Harvey.
US petrol prices continued to
rise through the weekend amid fears of shortages, despite the restart of several key refineries on the US Gulf Coast that had been crippled by Hurricane Harvey.
The storm took down a quarter of US oil refining capacity, hit oil and gas platforms along the Gulf and lifted average petrol prices by more than 20 cents since August 23. Yesterday, average retail prices rose again, to $2.621 a gallon, with weekly increases hitting 18 per cent in Georgia and 19pc in South Carolina, according to motorists advocacy group AAA.
Refiner Phillips 66 yesterday said it requested a Jones Act waiver to its Alliance refinery in Louisiana, but the petition was still pending.
The Jones Act mandates the use of US-flagged vessels to transport goods between US ports. The CBP has occasionally allowed exemptions for oil and gas operators to use often cheaper, tax-free, or more readily available foreign flagged vessels.
Yesterday, about 5.5pc of the Gulf’s oil production and 8.4pc of the natural gas output remained shut, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said, while operators began inspecting facilities and resuming work.
The total lost production in the Gulf since platforms started shutting is about 2.97m barrels of oil and 6.35 billion cubic feet of gas.