By Shariq Khan
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Colonial Pipeline restarted its main gasoline artery, which delivers fuel from the U.S. Gulf Coast to East Coast markets, on Friday after it was shut earlier this week due to a leak in Paulding County, Georgia.
“Colonial Pipeline safely completed repairs Friday morning on our gasoline pipeline, Line 1, in Paulding County, Ga., and returned the line to service,” the company said in a statement.
Line 1, one of two mainlines on the more than 5,500 mile Colonial Pipeline system, was shut on Monday night after the company received reports of a leak.
The pipeline delivers some 1.5 million barrels of gasoline each day from Houston, Texas, to storage tanks in Greensboro, North Carolina, from where the motor fuel is distributed locally or shipped to other markets all the way up to the New York Harbor.
Market disruptions from the outage were minimal, although supply had tightened in some areas, U.S. fuel distributor Mansfield told clients earlier on Friday.
U.S. gasoline futures prices eased about 0.1% to $2.12 per gallon by 12:56 a.m. EST.
“It will take the better part of next week to get terminals fully caught up after missing the better part of 4 days’ worth of batches,” fuel distributor TACenergy said.
However, demand is also likely to slow as fuel terminals that had filled up “just in case” will now have extra inventory to clear, TACenergy added.
Colonial said that site work, including remediation efforts, will continue in Paulding County in coordination with state and local agencies.
The company did not provide details on how the line was damaged, or the amount of fuel that was released.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in New York; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
