After the Panic: Understanding Pipeline Distribution Networks

After the Panic: Understanding Pipeline Distribution Networks

More than 70 percent of the Tennessee’s gas — and almost of all of what comes into Middle Tennessee — is handled by one company. So this week’s shortage at gas stations show how reliant the region is on a single pipeline.

Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline Co. transports gas from refineries on the Gulf Coast to terminals up and down the East Coast. A branch off the mainline in Atlanta diverts some of this gas into Nashville, via Chattanooga.

When the Colonial Pipeline breaks, the only other way for Middle Tennessee stations to get gas is to truck it in from Kentucky or West Tennessee, says AAA’s regional spokeswoman, Stephanie Milani.

“Memphis is actually supplied off of a totally different pipeline,” the Capline Pipeline, operated by a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Company.

Trade groups that represent convenience stores say they’ve also begun bringing gasoline into Middle Tennessee by barge.

Colonial does have a second pipeline that runs parallel to its gasoline pipeline. But it’s typically (continue reading at WPLN)

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