Colonial Pipeline Moving Fuel Despite Disruptions to Orders System

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.

A cyberattack on the U.S.’s largest fuel pipeline on May 7 forced a shutdown that triggered a spike in gas prices and shortages in parts of the Southeast. WSJ explains just how vulnerable the nation’s critical energy infrastructure is to attack. Photo illustration: Liz Ornitz/WSJ

On Monday, Colonial had said the pipeline was moving gasoline, diesel and jet fuel at normal levels, though it warned “it will take some time for the fuel supply chain to fully catch-up.”

U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts have linked the attack to the criminal gang known as DarkSide, believed to be based in Eastern Europe. The group has told hacking associates that it has lost access to the infrastructure it uses to run its operations and is shutting down, according to security firms FireEye FEYE 1.21% and Intel 471.

Ransomware is a type of code that locks up a victim’s computer systems and demands payment, typically in cryptocurrency, to have files released. The attack underscored the growing threat of ransomware to companies, schools, hospitals and other institutions, as well as the energy industry’s vulnerability to such assaults.

Following the shutdown, the national average gasoline price has climbed to its highest level in 6½ years, and was about $3.04 a gallon Tuesday, up about 5 cents from a week ago, according to AAA. The increase was more pronounced in southeastern states, with average prices rising 9 cents to 16 cents in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee.

As of Tuesday morning, about 10,600 gas stations were still without fuel across the region, according to GasBuddy, which compiles data when drivers report such outages. That included 46% of gas stations in North Carolina, 42% in South Carolina, 38% in Georgia and 26% in Virginia.