Colonial Pipeline official update: Gasoline is en route to N.C.

WLOS — UPDATE: A Colonial representative says that the pipeline is expected to restart Wednesday.

UPDATE: Governor McCrory has shared a timeline of events in the Colonial pipeline break:

September 9: Colonial Pipeline officials discovered a leak in the pipeline in Helena, Alabama. An estimated 6000 to 8000 barrels were spilled in a remote area of Shelby County.

September 15: Governor McCrory issued an executive order temporarily waiving hours of service restrictions for fuel vehicles traveling in and through the state, in order to help prevent disruptions and backups at major fuel distribution hubs.

September 16: McCrory issued a second executive order waiving additional trucking restrictions and protecting consumers from price-gouging at the fuel pumps. Both executive orders remain in place for 30 days, or until they are canceled.

September 17: Colonial Pipeline stated it would construct a bypass line around the leak site to restore completely restore Line 1 deliveries.

September 18: Colonial Pipeline leaders tell North Carolina emergency officials that they expect to have the pipeline bypass built by mid to late week. Upon completion of the bypass, it will take several days for fuel flow levels to return to normal.

The following is a statement from Colonial Pipeline, the company that owns the broken gas pipeline that's caused a state of emergency in North Carolina.

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. -- The company says that gas from Gulf Coast refiners is en route to N.C., though delivery times vary.

View updates on the pipeline directly from Colonial Pipeline here.

View the Colonial Pipeline press release here.

Supply Movement and Operations Update

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. – Colonial Pipeline issued the following update today regarding shipments of gasoline initiated late last week and in the process of being delivered now (many supplies have already been delivered) to distribution terminals throughout the system.

In an effort to minimize supply disruptions, last week Colonial Pipeline gathered gasoline from Gulf Coast refiners in order to ship supplies on its distillate line to markets throughout the affected region. As a result, following around-the-clock operations to effect this contingency plan, supplies of gasoline have been delivered and/or are in route to terminal locations in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Delivery times to mainline and stubline terminals in these markets vary.

We continue to be in regular communication with our customers, who are also working on their own individual contingency plans to minimize supply disruptions. This includes trucking and barging fuel from other markets and refineries.

As described above, gasoline shipments on Lines 1 and 2 (Mainlines) initiated on the system starting last week were delivered this past weekend or are in route to the following markets, with local and regional fuel marketers distributing the product from their terminals to retail stations:

Boligee, Oxford and Birmingham, Alabama

Opelousas, Louisiana

Atlanta, Georgia

Meridian, Mississippi

Belton and Spartanburg, South Carolina

Greensboro and Charlotte, North Carolina

Upon arrival at the mainline terminal locations outlined above, Colonial will deliver fuel directly to local terminal customers or re-originate the fuel down lateral or stublines to additional terminals in several other markets, which are highlighted below. Fuel terminal operators will then determine distribution patterns for each respective market, where gasoline will be off-loaded into tanker trucks for delivery to retail stations.

Griffin, Macon, Albany, and Bainbridge, Georgia

Raleigh and Selma, North Carolina

Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, Tennessee

North Augusta, South Carolina

Under normal circumstances, the Colonial Pipeline system transports approximately 2.6 million barrels of refined products each day, with Line 1 accounting for half of this volume. Colonial is currently shipping significant volumes of gasoline on Line 2, the distillate mainline, to help mitigate the impact of the service interruption to Line 1. These changes have allowed all origins and delivery markets to be served along the entire system, albeit in a reduced capacity. For more information on the fuel supply chain, please click here.