Colonial Pipeline cyberattack shuts key fuel artery to East Coast
A cyberattack forced Colonial Pipeline to halt its Gulf Coast-to-New Jersey system in May 2021, prompting emergency hours-of-service waivers for fuel haulers across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.
In May 2021, a cyberattack shut down the largest refined-products pipeline system in the U.S. and exposed how dependent much of the East Coast is on a single fuel line.
Colonial Pipeline halted operations on Friday, May 7, 2021, after the attack. The system can move about 2.5 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel along roughly 5,500 miles of pipe from Houston to Linden, New Jersey.
Why the Southeast was exposed
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are no major refineries between Alabama and the mid-Atlantic. That leaves states across the Southeast relying on pipeline deliveries from Gulf Coast refineries, with fuel terminals and trucks handling the last leg to stations.
Because product moves through the pipeline at only about 5 mph, the EIA noted that markets would depend on stored inventories for several days even after the line restarted.
Waivers for fuel haulers
Regulators moved quickly to help trucks fill the gap. As of May 9, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had issued an emergency hours-of-service waiver for drivers hauling fuel in 17 states and the District of Columbia. West Virginia was added May 11.
The Environmental Protection Agency also waived Reid vapor pressure requirements for gasoline in affected areas through May 31, giving suppliers more flexibility in what fuel they could move.
Diesel prices
The national average on-highway diesel price was $3.186 a gallon on May 10, according to the EIA. That was up 4.4 cents from the week before and 79 cents higher than a year earlier.
Regional prices varied widely. The East Coast averaged $3.16, the Midwest $3.13 and the Gulf Coast $2.97. The Rocky Mountain region was at $3.31 and the West Coast at $3.69.
The shutdown also reached back to refineries. The EIA said run cuts were reported at Citgo's Lake Charles plant in Louisiana and at the Total and Motiva refineries in Port Arthur, Texas, as they lost an outlet for their product.
What it meant for carriers
For fleets in the Southeast, the outage meant tighter fuel supply and price uncertainty while inventories carried the region. The hours-of-service waivers were aimed at letting tank truck drivers move more fuel by road while the pipeline was down.
The episode also showed that a digital attack on a single company could disrupt physical freight across a whole region within days.