Flames shoot into the sky from a gas line explosion in western Shelby County, Alabama, U.S., October 31, 2016.
Briefly – WSJ
A major fuel artery connecting refineries on the Gulf Coast to airports and gas stations on the East Coast was closed Monday, sending gasoline prices surging higher. Equipment being used by a work crew struck one of the lines in Shelby County, Ala., causing a fire that killed one person and injured several others. A sustained closure of the pipeline could constrain fuel supplies on the East Coast.
Colonial Pipeline stretches 5,500 miles from Texas to New Jersey and transports 2.5 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products. The pipeline is a main source of fuel in the Southeast and directly connects to several major airports. It has two major shipping lines, both of which were affected by Monday’s incident.
Nine oil companies announced plans in 1962 to build a pipeline from Houston to New Jersey, calling it “the largest single, privately financed construction project in the history of the United States.” The entire pipeline was operational by 1964.
Demand to ship on the pipeline has grown in recent years as refineries along the East Coast have closed. A secondary market has sprung up for shippers to buy and sell space on the pipeline.
A Colonial Pipeline junction and tank farm in Pelham, Ala.
Colonial Pipeline Co., which manages the pipeline, is owned by Koch Industries Inc., South Korea’s National Pension Service, KKR & Co., a Quebec pension fund, Shell Pipeline Co., Shell Midstream Partners LP and IFM Investors.
In 2003, the company entered a consent decree to resolve seven recent spills and paid the largest civil penalty in Environmental Protection Agency history at the time. Most recently, a leak in Alabama in September released several hundred thousand gallons of gasoline.
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