By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. retail gasoline prices hit a fresh seven-year high on Monday, as it will take some time for the nation’s largest fuel pipeline’s supply chain to fully catch up after a cyberattack that resulted in a six-day system outage last week and mass panic-buying.
The closure of Colonial Pipeline’s 5,500-mile (8,900-km) system was the most disruptive cyberattack on record, preventing millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from flowing to the East Coast from the Gulf Coast.
Last week more than 15,000 gas stations ran dry as drivers fearing a prolonged outage filled tanks and jerry cans. The closure came just ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of May, the traditional start of peak-demand summer driving season.
The national gas price on Monday hit $3.045 a gallon, the highest since October 2014, according to data from the American Automobile Association.
“The Southeast will continue to experience tight supply this week as terminals and gas stations are refueled,” said AAA spokesperson Jeanette McGee. “Over the weekend, gas prices started to stabilize, but are expected to fluctuate in the lead up to Memorial Day weekend.”
Fuel prices surged in the southeastern United States, where panic buying of gasoline was rampant. North Carolina saw an average price increase of 20 cents per gallon from the previous week, according to tracking firm GasBuddy on Monday.
South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia all saw price increases of just under 20 cents per gallon.
Even as motorists dashed to nearby gas stations, traffic congestion in cities such as Richmond, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina fell last week from the week prior, according to Carol Hansen at location technology company TomTom.
Some drivers in the region canceled trips and plans to avoid using their gas supply.
Alpharetta, Georgia-based Colonial is currently shipping at normal rates, though it will take some time for the supply chain to fully catch up, Colonial spokesman Eric Abercrombie said in an email over the weekend.
The company began resuming its regular nomination process on Monday to allocate capacity to companies that use the line.
DarkSide, the group blamed for attacking Colonial Pipeline systems, has said it recently hacked four other companies. A website it used to communicate went dark last week.
Websites tied to two other ransomware groups not connected to the Colonial hack also were unreachable in a likely retreat amid the hunt for perpetrators, Allan Liska, a researcher with cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said on Sunday.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
