Critical fuel pipelines from the Texas coast could be up and pumping again by Sunday, Colonial Pipeline officials said on Thursday morning.
There are two conduits currently pumping intermittently, but carrying fuel only from Lake Charles, La., which means half of the refineries the lines usually connect to are cut off, the Alpharetta-based company said.
On Wednesday, Colonial said its two pipelines would be shut down because of the damage done by Hurricane Harvey and the massive flooding that followed in Houston and the surrounding area.
Company officials said they hope Colonial can avoid a long suspension, which has worried energy analysts, and raises the possibility of soaring gas prices and shortages in metro Atlanta and other communities across the Southeast.
"We currently estimate that we will be able to return to service from Houston Sunday, following an evaluation of our infrastructure and successful execution of our start-up plan," Colonial officials said.
The longer the outage, the higher the chances of spiking prices and shortages like those that followed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. There were price hikes last year when a fire forced closure of one Colonial line for several weeks.
Meanwhile, wholesale prices for gasoline have been rising nationally.
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