LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Refiners booked at least five tankers to store gasoline stranded at U.S. Gulf Coast plants following a cyberattack that crippled the biggest fuel pipeline in the country, according to sources and shipping data on Tuesday.
The attack on the Colonial pipeline network, which supplies half of the fuel consumed along the East Coast, has forced Gulf Coast refineries to scale back operations due to lack of storage space. North Carolina suspended restrictions on fuel shipments to combat gasoline shortages.
The tankers, booked by Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, Phillips 66 and PBF Energy, can hold around 350,000 tonnes of fuel. Two of them were booked for up to a month, and three were provisional bookings that could be cancelled, according to data and shipbroking sources.
