Fuel supplies slowly getting back to normal along Outer Banks

Fuel inventories are getting back closer to normal following the wave of panic buying last week spurred by the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline.

But stations throughout North Carolina were still having trouble keeping up with demand, with GasBuddy.com’s availability tracker reporting 42 percent of the stations statewide had fuel available as of Sunday evening.

Gas outages by state, 4pm CT, chg since last update:
AL 8% N/C
DC 69% -11%
DE 2% N/C
FL 19% -2%
GA 42% -2%
KY 2% N/C
LA 0% N/C
MD 29% -2%
MS 6% N/C
NC 58% N/C
NJ 1% N/C
SC 48% N/C
TN 27% -1%
TX 0% N/C
VA 34% N/C
WV 6% N/C

— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) May 16, 2021

Lines have been much shorter over the weekend, while reports to Gas Buddy showed around half the stations on the Outer Banks and the mainland were still either out or had limited fuel available.

• Click here for the latest OBX update from GasBuddy.com

Officials with the pipeline that runs from the Gulf Coast to New York and supplies about half of the gasoline to the East Coast was back to normal operations Friday.

As we previously reported, Colonial Pipeline initiated the restart of pipeline operations at approximately 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 12. Since that time, we have returned the system to normal operations, delivering millions of gallons per hour to the markets we serve. pic.twitter.com/UJG7SqUxSQ

— Colonial Pipeline (@Colpipe) May 15, 2021

Gas Buddy’s chief analyst Patrick DeHaan said Sunday it could “take weeks for full restoration” of all grades of motor fuel are available at every station.