ILTA's Situational Awareness Report and Analysis for Colonial Pipeline Outage
May 17, 2021
This ILTA report provides a brief synopsis of the latest news, federal policy developments and legislative discussions related to the Colonial Pipeline outage. This report is also available on the ILTA Colonial Resource Page, where links to the below documents can be found.
Advocacy
  • ILTA continued to press EPA for temporary air emissions waivers related to landing floating roofs, holding a phone discussions Saturday with EPA officials. With the reopening of the pipeline, supply is beginning to flow. Still, Colonial has said that actual operations and fuel quality will remain inconsistent in the coming weeks. For example, a greater volume of transmix in fuel deliveries is likely. If granted, a waiver would allow greater flexibility to terminal operators in maximizing the volume of fuel distribution in areas with limited supply.
  • ILTA continued to work with members and the Coast Guard on waivers to permit additional security measures to allow temporary access of non-TWIC truck drivers to load product.
  • ILTA asks that members continuing to have TWIC-related issues reach out to ILTA and to the Captain of the Port for their individual facility.

Washington Post (Subscription)

DarkSide, the cyber-criminal team that took down the Colonial Pipeline system on May 7 and crippled the East Coast’s supply of gasoline, released a statement saying that it is shutting down after growing pressure from the American government. The group’s, “ransomware as a service,” model allowed hackers to use its services to attack individuals, companies, and public organizations. The Colonial Pipeline incident in particular was the result of a spearphishing campaign that gave DarkSide access to Colonial’s IT systems, locking workers out unless a ransom was paid. There is no indication yet on how, when or where the group will resurface.


MarketScreener
 
As the Colonial Pipeline resumed full operations on Saturday, gasoline shortages across the East Coast began to ease. Thousands of ships and trucks were deployed to fill up storage tanks after the six-day Colonial Pipeline shutdown, the most disruptive cyberattack on record, triggered widespread panic buying that left filling stations across the U.S. Southeast dry. According to the crowd-sourced fuel tracking app GasBuddy, over 13,400 gas stations in the east and south were still experiencing shortages on Saturday, down from 16,200 on Friday. Some areas will likely continue to experience shortages for a few more weeks as the full supply chain is restored.  

Today Show

After being crippled by cyberattack, the nation's largest fuel pipeline resumed normal operations over the weekend. And while most gas stations up and down the East Coast are now back online some are still running low on fuel. NBC’s Blayne Alexander reports for TODAY from Atlanta.

Axios

If you run a pipeline, terminal hospital, a bank, a utility or a city, chances are you'll be hit with a ransomware attack. Given the choice between losing your precious data or paying up, chances are you'll pay. Paying the hackers is the clear short-term answer for most organizations hit with these devastating attacks, but it's a long-term societal disaster, encouraging hackers to continue their lucrative extortion schemes. Payments to ransomware attackers rose 337% from 2019 to 2020, reaching more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to figures just released by Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company.

Maritime Executive

Citgo was identified as the second and likely last company to receive a temporary Jones Act waiver as a result of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. The company will use the waiver to move 200,000 barrels of petroleum products from its Gulf Coast refiners in Louisiana to New Jersey. Valero, the other company to receive a waiver, received its approval early last week.