August 28, 2011 [Bloomberg] - Oil terminal and pipeline operators along the U.S. East Coast shut pipelines, lost power and reported flooding as Tropical Storm Irene passed.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP shut its 600,000-barrel-a- day Plantation pipeline from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Washington after a power outage, Emily Mir Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based company, said in an e-mail. The line ships oil products from Louisiana to the U.S. capital.
The company’s East Coast fuel terminals “fared well,” a Kinder Morgan spokesman, Joe Hollier, said in an e-mail.
“Some minor flooding but no major damage,” Hollier said.
Buckeye Partners LP shut a pipeline that supplies jet fuel to John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York City from storage in Linden, New Jersey, and halted gasoline and distillate fuel deliveries to Brooklyn and Inwood terminals.
The Houston-based company was forced to shut its Laurel pipeline across Pennsylvania after its Sinking Spring and Booth terminals lost power.
“We believe we should have power at Sinking Spring soon, and we are working on getting generators connected at Booth if necessary,” Elycia Gauthier, a Buckeye spokeswoman in Houston, said in an e-mailed statement.
The company also lost power to its Wethersfield and Malvern terminals, Gauthier said.
Colonial Pipeline Co. was restoring service to the Norfolk and Tidewater area of Virginia that was shut as Irene approached. Service to Selma, North Carolina, locations was restored yesterday, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
Virginia Outages
Some customers, including shippers in the Norfolk, Virginia, area, lost power and shut operations as Irene neared, it said.
“We are in contact with them and will conduct an orderly return to service when we confirm it is safe to do so,” the company said.
Colonial said it has maintained power at its Linden, New Jersey, complex and main lines traveling into the Northeast are operating normally.
NuStar Energy LP said it expects to bring its terminal in Wilmington, North Carolina, to full operations tomorrow. The terminal in Paulsboro, New Jersey, remains in operation, the San Antonio-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
NuStar shut several terminals along the East Coast, including ones in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and New Jersey, in anticipation of Irene’s landing.
Magellan Midstream Partners resumed operations at its terminals in Richmond, Virginia, and Selma, North Carolina. Truck loading operations at the terminal in Wilmington, Delaware, have also resumed, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
Operations at Magellan’s terminals in New Haven, Connecticut, “remain suspended,” the company said.