A key pipeline delivering fuel into the storm-stricken New York area has resumed shipments and barge shipments were slowly returning to normal, offering hope for relief from a gasoline supply crunch that has frustrated the region.
Colonial Pipeline, a conduit that supplies about 15 percent of the East Coast’s gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, said late on Thursday it had resumed deliveries at its Linden facility in New Jersey and began sending deliveries to a nearby terminal.
Separately oil tankers were expected to begin discharging shipments again after New York Harbor authorities cleared parts of the shipping channels for movement.
Still supplies remain constricted with two major New Jersey refineries idle and key oil storage sites still without power, while thousands of service stations across the region are unable to serve drivers either due to a lack of gas or a lack of power.
In parts of New York and New Jersey, drivers lined up Thursday for hours at gas stations that were struggling to stay supplied. The power outages and flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy have forced many gas stations to close and disrupted the flow of fuel from refineries to those stations that are open.
Officials say that as few as a third of all the service stations in New Jersey and New York City are open.
At gas stations in New York and New Jersey Thursday morning, police troopers were deployed to keep order as long lines caused tempers to flare.
A motorist was arrested Thursday after he tried to cut in line at a gas station in Queens early Thursday and pointed a pistol at another motorist who complained.
Long lines of cars were seen at the Mobil gas station on Empire Blvd. and New York Avenue in Crown Heights Friday morning, however by 9:30 am the supply had run out.
A source at the gas station told COLlive there is no estimated date yet for when they will resume operations.
