The Colonial Pipeline’s ordering system suffered intermittent disruptions Tuesday morning, but the pipeline’s operator said it was still moving fuel through the key conduit to the East Coast. Colonial Pipeline Co. said the earlier outages—to the system used by shippers to set or change delivery points of fuel—had been caused by some of its continuing efforts to secure its operations, and weren’t related to the ransomware attack this month that forced it to shut down the pipeline for six days. By Tuesday afternoon, the ordering system was back online, a person familiar with the matter said.
The 5,500-mile pipeline transports gasoline, diesel and other refined products from the Gulf Coast to Linden, N.J., delivering about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, according to the company’s website. Its closure following a ransomware attack spurred a run on gasoline last week that left thousands of gas stations without fuel in more than a dozen states. “These issues were not related to the ransomware or any type of reinfection. We are working diligently to bring our nomination system back online and will continue to keep our shippers updated,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.