The major pipeline delivering gasoline to Oregon spent around 10 days out of service, forcing prices at the pump to surge across the state, before reportedly restarting Friday.
Experts who closely watch fuel prices expect gas prices to stay high at least into next week — and potentially for longer — even as fuel starts flowing through the line again.
The Olympic Pipeline, owned and operated in part by oil and gas giant BP, carries fuel from refineries in Washington state to the Portland area. The pipeline was not scheduled for a routine outage this month, according to fuel industry experts. However, on Sept. 2, users of the pipeline started reporting disruptions.
A BP spokesperson told OPB the company doesn’t comment on operations. The agency in the U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates pipelines did not return a request for information on Friday.
Meanwhile, gasoline prices shot up in Oregon more than in any other state this week. Prices climbed an average of 16 cents per gallon in Oregon, according to the nonprofit American Automobile Association, better known as AAA.
The increase is thanks to the Olympic Pipeline outage, according to AAA, as well as refinery issues in Washington and California. Fuel appeared to start moving through the line again on Friday.
Gasoline also travels to Oregon on boats, trains, and, in limited cases, trucks. But the Olympic Pipeline is the primary way fuel gets into the state.
Because Oregon has no refineries, around 90% of the state’s fuel is refined in Washington and then transported south on the pipeline, according to the Oregon Department of Energy.
“Any disruption from the pipeline, which is a majority of our fuel that goes into Portland and also down to Eugene, that can have a great deal of impact on the supply,” Mike Freese with the Oregon Fuels Association said. “Simple economics is constraint on supply while demand stays the same — prices tend to go up.”
Gasoline prices are notoriously volatile, and Freese said Oregon’s reliance on one pipeline makes it even more so here.
Oregon’s gas prices can be impacted locally thanks to planned or unplanned refinery maintenance, or by anything that disrupts the transportation system.
“Oregon’s fuel infrastructure is somewhat tenuous,” Freese said. “We rely on it every day. We pull up to the gas station and fuel is available. But this issue highlights where we do have some vulnerabilities.”