Gas runs out after Colonial Pipeline cyberattack: North Carolina declares state of emergency as cars line up outside stations in Virginia, Georgia and Florida and American Airlines adds extra stops to long haul flights
Gas stations from Florida to Virginia have closed their pumps and a state of emergency has been declared by the governor of North Carolina after Colonial Pipeline was forced to shut off the nation's big fuel pipeline when it was hacked.
The FBI has confirmed that DarkSide, a Russian hacking outfit made up of ransomware veterans, was responsible for the attack on Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and transports 45 percent of the East Coast's fuel supply.
The 5,500 pipeline shut down five days ago and services are only gradually being restored now. Colonial, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, has not yet said whether it has already paid or is negotiating a ransom with the hackers.
Colonial said it was working to 'substantially' resume operations by the end of this week but reports of gas shortages are already emerging up and down the East Coast.
Meanwhile, at least 24 other companies across a range of industries were also reportedly affected by the ransomware attack and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, called for military strikes to kill those involved in an 'act of war' against America.
The pipeline supplies nearly half of all the East Coast's fuel needs, including Atlanta's airport - the world's busiest, by passenger traffic. The pipeline also serves 90 U.S. military installations and 26 oil refineries.
Drivers in Asheville, North Carolina, posted photos of long lines waiting to fill up their cars
Gas stations in Atlanta were suffering from shortages on Monday as a result of the hack
In Greenville, North Carolina, drivers were also rushing to the pumps to fill their cars
The attack on Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and transports 45 percent of the East Coast's fuel supply, is the largest assault on US energy infrastructure in history and has sent shockwaves across the industry
As the shutdown entered its fifth day, it emerged that American Airlines was adding stops to two of its long-haul flights from its Charlotte, North Carolina hub as a likely effort to conserve fuel in areas where it could run short, CNBC reports.
Motorists were also beginning to report shortages at gas stations. A spokesman for Race Trac, which operates gas stations in the Atlanta area, confirmed the shortage to WSBTV-2.
At least two gas stations in Tallahassee, Florida, were completely out of stock, according to Bloomberg.
Patrick de Haan, an energy expert who runs the monitoring site Gas Buddy Tracker, said his sources showed five per cent of stations in Virginia running empty.
His recommendation to motorists: 'Conserve, conserve, conserve.'
The lack of supply could soon hit users across the country in the pocketbook.
The American Automobile Association is predicting that gas prices will only surge as a result of the shutdown after the national gas price average jumped six cents to $2.96.
An increase of three more cents would make the national average the most expensive since November 2014.
AAA is predicting that gasoline prices could rise three to seven cents per gallon this week and said that there also could be 'limited fuel availability' in places.
'This shutdown will have implications on both gasoline supply and price, but the impact will vary regionally,' an AAA spokesperson said.
'Areas including Mississippi, Tennessee and the East Coast from Georgia into Delaware are most likely to experience limited fuel availability and prices increases as early as this week.
'These states may see prices increase three to seven cents this week.'
On Monday evening, the Gas Buddy tracking site was showing several gas stations empty
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said an emergency declaration in his state would help people prepare for possible shortages.
'Today's emergency declaration will help North Carolina prepare for any potential motor vehicle fuel supply interruptions across the state and ensure motorists are able to have access to fuel,' he said.
The order provides funds for transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Certain registration and filing requirements when it comes to the transport will be waived.
On the streets, motorists in Atlanta were reporting having to go to three different gas stations to fill up.
'Gas stations around Atlanta are running out of gas and the ones that have it are hiking up the prices,' said one man on Twitter.
Another said: 'Y'all better go and fill up on gas Atlanta. I finally got gas after trying at 3 gas stations.'
A third man said: 'I went to three gas stations and they were out of gas. Hope to make it to one with gas before my car stop.'
In North Carolina, a reporter with WLOS spoke to a cashier at a gas station in Robbinsville, whose pumps were dry.
'Clerk said manager told her it could be five days before they have gas again. Says phone has been ringing off the hook of people calling around to find gas,' the reporter tweeted.
Florida resident Katina Willey told Reuters she went to five gas stations before she found one that had fuel available.
'There were lines at three of the five stations I tried,' she said. Other motorists said they were seeking to fill up for fear the situation could worsen.
The pipeline, the largest in United States, is responsible for transporting more than 100 million gallons of fuel - 2.5 million barrels - daily through pipelines laid out between Texas and New Jersey.
Emergency shipments of gasoline and diesel from Texas are already on the way to Atlanta and other southeast cities via trucks.
Airlines flying out of Philadelphia International Airport are burning through jet-fuel reserves and the airport has enough to last 'a couple of weeks,' a spokeswoman said.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the major hub for Delta Air Lines, said it is looking at other suppliers of fuel but that operations have not been affected.
'Hartsfield-Jackson and its airline partners are in close communications with fuel suppliers and are taking steps to mitigate any impact the Colonial incident might have,' a spokeswoman told CNBC.
'Currently, ATL is coordinating with additional suppliers to augment the airport's fuel inventory.'
Delta declined to comment on the pipeline outage.
United said that it is working with airports 'to understand the impact and our operations are not impacted at this time.'
Oil prices fell on Tuesday as fears faded that the outage would continue for weeks ahead.
'The rally in oil prices was short-lived as the Colonial Pipeline disruption seems it will not have a prolonged impact,' Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a Tuesday note.
DarkSide claimed in a statement posted on the dark web on Monday that their only goal was to 'make money' and not cause chaos with their ransomware attack.
'We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics,' the statement read. 'Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society.'
'From today we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences in the future.'
Despite saying they want to avoid chaos, experts have warned that the shutdown of Colonial last Friday could cause extraordinary disruption and result in a spike in gas prices the longer the pipeline remains down.
The Russian embassy in the US has denied involvement, saying: 'We categorically reject the baseless fabrications of individual journalists and reiterate that Russia does not conduct 'malicious' activity in the virtual space.'
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday night said Joe Biden should be authorized to 'order the killings of anybody overseas' who was found to be behind attacks on America's infrastructure, describing the cyberhack of the Colonial Pipeline as 'an act of war'.
Gingrich said that the United States needed more power to go after those responsible.
'On the national security part, we ought to pass a law immediately that makes this kind of hacking subject to a death penalty and the law should include a provision that the president, through a judicial process, should be able to order the killings of anybody overseas who is doing this,' he told Fox News' Sean Hannity.
'It's an act of war against the United States to do stuff like this.
'We need to react to it as an act of war, and the American people are going to look at their representatives and their senators and say, if you don't fix this, your successor will. I won't put up with it, and I won't put up with you if you don't fix it.'
Gingrich said it was pitiful that the US was falling prey to such attacks.
'We have no idea who they are. We have no idea where they are,' he said. 'If we did know who they were, we would have no mechanism to do anything about it.
'A great country can't allow people to savage it and have no consequences and wait for the next attack.
'And yet that literally is where we are.'
Newt Gingrich appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News on Monday night
No comments