To mitigate potential effects of disrupted shipments of refined products on the 2.5-million b/d Colonial Pipeline, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) is considering a temporary and targeted waiver of the Jones Act. On May 11 DOT’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) started a survey of Jones Act-qualified vessels to begin the process of determining whether there is sufficient capacity on Jones Act-qualified vessels to carry petroleum products within the US Gulf of Mexico, and from the Gulf up the eastern seaboard.
MARAD’s role in the Jones Act waiver process is to determine the availability of Jones Act vessels. Authority to receive requests for and to approve waivers to the Jones Act belongs to the Department of Homeland Security.
DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration meanwhile assisted Colonial in getting the system’s Line 4 running on a manual basis while existing inventory is available. Line 4 runs from Greensboro, NC, to Woodbine, Md.
Additional laterals are also operating manually to deliver existing inventories. Markets experiencing supply constraints or that are not serviced by other fuel delivery systems are being prioritized, Colonial said.
Colonial reported delivery of a total 967,000 bbl since the outage began May 7 to Atlanta, Ga., Belton and Spartanburg, SC, Charlotte and Greensboro, NC, Baltimore, Md., and Woodbury and Linden NJ. The pipeline has also taken delivery of an additional 2 million bbl from refineries for deployment upon restart.
Over the weekend the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) took steps to create more schedule flexibility for motor carriers and drivers (OGJ Online, May 10, 2021). FMCSA issued a temporary hours of service exemption for those transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products to Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, adding West Virginia this week.
DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is canvassing rail operators to determine their capacity to help transport fuel from ports inland and if there are additional steps FRA could do to help them increase this capacity. The agency is also working with industry to identify trends indicating capacity pressures.
FMCSA and the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) are tracking two states (Georgia, North Carolina) that have issued emergency declarations which include weight waivers for trucks on state roadways. Other states are considering similar action. FMCSA and FHWA are working with the full list of potentially effected states to share information and best practices and try to align their efforts.
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