Colonial Pipeline

The main US East Coast fuel line, moving gasoline and diesel from Gulf refineries north since the 1960s.

Overview

Running about 8,800 kilometers from Houston to the New York harbor area with a capacity around 2.5 to 3 million barrels a day, Colonial historically supplied roughly two-fifths of the East Coast's refined fuel, including jet fuel for airports along the way. A 2016 leak in Alabama caused gasoline spikes across the Southeast. In 2021 a ransomware criminal attack shut the line for about a week, triggering panic buying, fuel shortages and a federal emergency response, one of the most consequential cyberattacks on physical infrastructure to date. The pipeline is invisible until it stops.