AAA: Cyber Attack Threatens Gas Prices

Daytona Beach, FL - Florida’s gas prices already jumped by 10 cents last week, now a cyber attack on the largest refined product pipeline in the United States could bring them up again. The Colonial Pipeline—which carries oil and gasoline from Houston, Texas to New York Harbor—was the target of a ransomware cyber attack on Friday (May 7). When the company realized that there was an attack going on, they made the decision to shut down their entire network. According to an article from NBC News, a Russian group known as "DarkSide" could be responsible for the attack. Florida is not largely dependent on this pipeline as the state’s supply is delivered from Gulf Coast refineries via waterborne vessels. Because of this, Florida should remain well supplied. However, Mark Jenkins, AAA spokesperson, says pump prices remain vulnerable to futures price swings, which are influenced by domestic and international supply and demand. "The longer the pipeline is down, the greater the threat of rising gas prices," said Jenkins "If operations are restored on Monday, drivers may see very little to no impact at the pump. A lengthy downtime, like a week, would be a different story. Sunday night, gasoline futures prices were up less than a nickel." A press release from Colonial Pipeline states that the company is developing a restart plan and will bring the full system back online when they believe it is safe to do so. In an additional effort to ease supply concerns, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a temporary hours of service exemption that applies to tanker trucks transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum products. AAA says these types of exemptions are something commonly seen after a hurricane or other natural disaster. It applies to 18 states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. As of Monday morning (May 10), Florida is looking at an average state gasoline (regular unleaded) price of around $2.87 a gallon. That’s up 10 cents compared to last week’s reported average of $2.77. Locally, Volusia County drivers are seeing averages around $2.85 a gallon, which is up 12 cents compared to what drivers were finding last week. In Flagler, the reported average is said to be hovering around $2.85, which is on par with Volusia. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area was said to have the highest average in the state with $2.99 while Punta Gorda has the lowest average with $2.81. The national average currently sits near $2.97, which is up 7 cents from last week.