Topic: Pipeline shutdown cause fuel scarcity in the US (Read 179 times)

There is a thread about this - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/fbi-says-it-recovered-2-million-in-bitcoin-ransomware-payment-how-5342486

The recovery is nothing compared to the economic damage the shutdown caused. It may deter future ransomware attacks in the future though.

The pipeline was effectively out of business until the ransomware was removed from their systems. This meant they either had to rebuild all their systems or pay the ransom. It seems they had difficulty even after paying.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-07/doj-to-discuss-ransomware-attack-on-colonial-pipeline-on-monday

Wow, US government did something useful for once.

They recovered a lot of the Bitcoin that was stolen through the hack. Can't imagine how they did this though. The article mentions who was behind the hack, they said the people who are responsible will probably not face charges because they're outside of US. Seemed very weird how the oil company willingly gave up millions on a whim, guess it was peanuts compared to the amount of money they were losing shut down.

Fear of a major fuel pipeline network could lead to a shortage of gasoline causing some panic and for US regulators to temporarily suspend clean energy requirements in the previous three states and the nation's capital but the situation is only temporary. Despite being there drivers lined up to fill their tanks at gas stations in the southeast carrying some extra containers for fear of fuel shortages the shutdown feared that a shortage before the official memorial day holiday the official kick off of the summer travel season would push up petrol prices. But towards the end the pipeline network will be fully up and running.

Private company is now working on the issue, and private means private if you know what I mean.

Everything will always be like this, issues without surfing for more detailed explanation comes down to blaming something just to feel content

Best way to get the old folks to live longer and healthier. Make 'em walk a little.


Pipeline panic is preview of CYBER TAKEDOWN of U.S. infrastructure

This is really funny. Here in this devastated poor country, we have been in line for years to get 20 or 40 liters of petrol for cars. Sometimes you have to stop for two days to get 40 liters of petrol !!!
In any case, I do not know what the reality of the situation in the United States is, but it is certain that the United States has the largest reserves in the world of energy fuels such as gasoline, diesel and gas, so I do not know explicitly if there is a malfunction in one of the lines or is it a government plan to reduce spending Fuel or political pressure on citizens.

According to this description of how crude oil gets to gas stations in the form of gasoline, it looks like the "storage" part of the process happens before the gas gets to the pipeline.

I know there are few locations in which oil is stored, and this is generally governed by the terms of futures contracts. For example, gasoline futures traded on the CME, appears to be delivered in the New York Harbor.

Also, having any kind of inventory in storage is expensive, not just in terms of paying for the storage, but also because having inventory in storage means you have to use capital (money) to pay for the inventory and are being delayed in receiving payment for said inventory.

Same reason why you don't keep a 55 gal drum of gas in your garage. Why would you do that if 99% of the time you can just buy when you need it, and the 1% when you can't - just wait it out.

The only entity who could afford such "wasteful" reserves is the government and it gets blamed when it does such things, as well as when it doesn't.

Which although OT from the original post does bring up an interesting question of why?

Without being rude to the people who are in charge of logistics of this stuff, and I know it's a big deal and not simple. But it's not rocket science. Just due to general planning you would think that the depots have more then 4 days of fuel. Just general storms / weather issues in general you would think that a larger storage supply would be generally good. Same in the NE, you can't plan to slow production to keep storage at 95% or so now you have to take it offline instead of just slowing it. WTF?

I might not fully grasp some of the complexities of what has to go on, but it just seems like it's a bunch of people making it up as they go as opposed to having a plan.

-Dave

This is an issue of gas stations. The supply depots, at least those in the northeast will have an overabundance of gas, possibly to an extent they will be unable to hold additional gas, and gas production may need to be taken offline. Depots in the southeast are running empty.

The issue is that there are not enough alternate delivery methods that will deliver sufficient amounts of gas to meet ongoing demand. A single gas station may be able to procure additional gas by paying an additional $0.17 per gallon, however, all gas stations that are out of gas cannot do this.

The pipeline in question delivers ~50% of gas throughout the east coast and has been offline for 5-6 days (depending on the time the pipeline went offline, and how much gas continued to flow after it went offline). Assuming weekly deliveries, this means assuming no increased gas demand, that all gas stations that receive gas from this pipeline would run out of gas in a couple of days. Trucks making long haul drives, and additional gas delivered via ports that would not normally be delivered will reduce this somewhat, however, total fuel delivery will still be sharply reduced.

There is some panic buying, which is making the problem somewhat worse, however, this is not the same as the panic buying of toilet paper last year, as there is a limit as to how much gas people can buy, and purchases can only be accelerated by so many days.

The question is are the supply depos out of gas or just the gas stations?

People are panic buying and emptying the local stations. The available trucks can only deliver so much gas per day. And gas truck drivers require an endorsement on their license since they are carting 1000s of gallons of flammable liquid. It's not link you can just grab any driver off the street to haul it.

A full fuel depo and lack of delivery slots is not that bad. An empty depo is a different discussion.

The other issue is that there are a lot of small private stations that buy on the spot market when they need, based on previous usage. i.e. Bob sells 9k to 11k gallons per week. He has a standing time slot with a trucker to pick up and deliver 10k gallons every Monday. He can get another delivery but the gas is going to cost him and extra $0.08 gallon to buy and an extra $0.09 gallon for delivery. Can he make a profit selling gas that cost him an extra $.17? Remember, if everything goes back to normal by Monday he could be sitting on fuel that he BOUGHT for more money then the person down the street is SELLING for. Especially if a lot of people panic filled their cars that did not need to, and now will not need gas for another week or 2.

Happened in the north east after hurricane Sandy. Massive shortage for a few days, as everything got back to normal stations were overpaying a lot to get gas in, a few days later you were hearing complaints about what I just posted. Delivery costs dropped by over a dime a gallon as did fuel on the spot market. So now they had gas in their tanks that cost then more then they could sell it for.

-Dave

Some people in SC can't go to work, but I don't think this is the cataclysmic event we've all been dreading.

I filled up this afternoon, and the gas station was running at capacity with some cars waiting for gas. In North Carolina, approximately 12% of gas stations are out of gas. In South Carolina the number is about 7%.

If the pipeline does not come back online by the end of the week, there could be serious gas shortages in parts of the country.

I think this was a major intelligence failure on the part of the Biden Administration.

Nothing bad happening around here. Long Island, NY. No shortages, no lines. Small, as in a few pennies, increase in price since last week but, no idea if it's related to this or just a general increase.
From what I saw it's areas with a lot less stations around so when everyone goes to the one in town you get lines.
And I'm sure much like at the start of covid with TP, there are people filling up their cars and every gas can they can find "just in case".

-Dave

So from what I've read, the US has a pipeline that travels from the south of the country along the coast, and hackers went into a private company and locked down their systems with ransomware. Sounds like a huge cyber attack but I just now heard of it. I guess it might cause a temporary fuel shortage but the company says they'll have their systems back up at the end of the week so that's probably why this isn't a bigger deal.

We woke up to the news of a long queue in our gas stations in and around the US and this was said to result from faulty gas pipelines, how long this will take to be fixed is unknown. Could there be political undertones to this sad incident that have left many citizens stranded?