Colonial personnel found “significant damage” while attempting repairs to the booster. The company told customers near midday that further repairs would require additional downtime, the extent of which is still unknown.

Colonial spokesman Steve Whitehead told OPIS this afternoon that there has been no progress update on repairs since this morning’s news of the worse-than-expected damage. The problem could linger into next week but Colonial will update shippers when they have fresh information, Whitehead said.

The booster pumps fuel coming up from the South into Line 3 for its journey to Baltimore and eventually northern New Jersey. During this emergency, Colonial has been using a booster pump from Line 4 to upload gasoline onto Line 3.

This problem had already begun to delay shipments that head towards the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on the 900,000-b/d line earlier this week. A prolonged shutdown of the line over the weekend could begin to seriously back product up that moving northward from the Gulf Coast. The pump has not operated so far yet in 2013.

It could also mean more trouble for the Northeast supply chain, which has long been in a state of recovery from Hurricane Sandy and dwindling imports. New York Harbor market watchers should be prepared for price support in the market place over the short term, though no clear sign of heavier buying had developed yet Friday.

So far the news has not played out visibly in the spot market, with U.S. Gulf Coast gasoline trading levels dipping 2-4cts/gal today and flat prices down several cents. 
However, suddenly the forward curve has shifted noticeably.
The next cycle, which becomes prompt timing after tonight’s shipping deadline for Cycle 2, had been pricing 1.50-1.75cts more expensive than Cycle 3 this morning but now we are seeing the opposite develop. After C2 and C3 regular conventional blends traded at the same price this afternoon, fresh word had C2 actually costing a quarter-penny to a half-cent less than C3 at presstime. 
CBOB implied prices slumped below $2.6150/gal and clear unleaded under $2.6375/gal.