US Gas Shortage 2021

The gasoline shortages in the US East Coast recently began to ease since the Colonial Pipeline Cyber Attack. Ships and trucks were deployed to fill up the storage tanks after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. It was the most disruptive cyberattack on record.

US Gas Shortage in 2021

• There are 121,000 stores in the US that sell 5,300 gallons of gasoline per day. They accounted to 80% of fuel sales. The demand in these stores increased two to five times.
• The National average price of One Gallon of Gasoline increased by 3 USD for the first time since 2016.
• Around 75% of gas stations in Washington DC were without fuel after the cyberattack.
• More than half of North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia were out of fuel.
• Several gas stations were lined up with more than five to six trucks.
• The American Airlines had to change flight schedules due to fuel shortages.
• The US agencies coordinated to relax the rules to increase the trucks, ships and trains that shipped fuel. However, these changes brought only minimal impacts.
• The President US Biden declared state of emergency to handle the fuel shortages amidst COVID-19 crisis.

What caused the Gas Shortage 2021?

The largest fuel pipeline of the US was forced to shut down after a gang of hackers attacked the pipeline. They locked the pipeline and demanded for ransom to release them. This disrupted the gas flows in the colonial pipelines located in the Southeast.

Colonial Pipeline

The Colonial Pipeline delivers 45% of fuel to the East Coast of the US. It runs from the Gulf coast to New York metropolitan region. Only the south east region of the US is more dependent on this line. The rest of the country has different sources.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021