Adds details from the company.
Colonial Pipeline completed permanent repairs yesterday to a vital gasoline pipeline supplying the US Atlantic coast and southeast from the US Gulf coast.
The midstream operator said the 1.3mn b/d Line 1 pipeline running from near Houston, Texas, to Greensboro, North Carolina, was running at 100pc today. Colonial shut the pipeline for 36 hours to disconnect a bypass build in September and connect replacement pipe. Gasoline began flowing again around 7:49am ET and reached planned rates at around 12:33pm ET, according to the company.
Trouble with the pipeline this fall led to the company's first contractor fatality since 1998 and roiled gasoline markets in the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts in what customers called an unprecedented series of outages. Investigations into both a leak discovered in mid-September and a deadly explosion and fire on 31 October amid repair continued, the company said.
Colonial continued to study whether the accidents would lead to any change in operations across its 5,500-mile (8,851km) system.
"What we learn from these incidents will be part of that consideration on how to improve Colonial and ensure the safety of the public and protection of the environment," the company said.
Extended outages on Line 1 and its distillates-bearing twin, Line 2, are rare. But Colonial marked the pipeline operator's worst year pipeline downtime in decades on a system that has operated at roughly full capacity for four years.
A state employee discovered in mid-September a fuel release along the pipeline's path through a remote mining site near Helena, Alabama. The company shut the line on 9 September, anticipating repair and restoration within a few days.
Soil saturated by an estimated 7,400 bl of gasoline slowed excavation. Stirring the dirt released benzene under certain weather conditions and created a hazard for workers. Crews instead installed a 500-foot, 36-inch bypass to restore service along the pipeline as the outage stretched to 13 days, Colonial's longest since 1994.
The leak struck just ahead of where the bulk of Colonial barrels begin to branch off for delivery into markets across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Terminal operators across the southeast scrambled to replace supplies. Colonial began moving gasoline batches on Line 2. Marathon Petroleum chartered a Jones Act vessel, Western Refining shifted to waterborne deliveries in Virginia and tanker trucks traveled hundreds of miles to find gasoline as isolated retailers ran out of product. Retailer Murphy USA said the company brought in fuel from as far away as Nevada during the outage.
US Gulf coast refiners without sufficient alternatives, including Alon USA's 83,000 b/d refinery in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, cut rates to manage gasoline inventories.
The bypass allowed volumes across the region to recover. Tanks topped off as markets prepared for Hurricane Matthew. But the pipeline shut for the second time in roughly two months after a deadly 31 October explosion and fire erupted during preparations to make permanent repairs to the line.
A nine-person team of contractors struck the line with a trackhoe, igniting pressurized gasoline into a fire that killed one worker and injured five. Fire continued to burn on the pipeline for days as the company emptied gasoline out of the segment and made repairs. Service was restored 6 November.
PHMSA authorized the repair and restart plan, as well as authorization to run at full pressure, late 18 November, the agency said. The now unused bypass pipe remains on site awaiting removal, Colonial said.
Both accidents triggered ongoing investigations by the Pipeline Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration (PHMSA). The National Transportation Safety Board leads the investigation into October's fatal accident.
