Gas Prices Could Soar After Pipeline Cyberattack Forces Closure

Millions of Americans could be paying more at the pump because hackers in Eastern Europe allegedly idled a massive U.S. pipeline company.

Colonial Pipeline, which operates a 5,500-mile pipeline stretching from Texas to the Northeast, has so far not indicated when the flow of oil will resume. The pipeline was shut down on Friday.

“This could be the most impactful ransomware attack in history, a cyber disaster turning into a real-world catastrophe,” Andrew Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Illumio, a cybersecurity company, told NBC News.

“It’s an absolute nightmare, and it’s a recurring nightmare,” he said. “Organizations continue to rely and invest entirely on detection, as if they can stop all breaches from happening. But this approach misses attacks over and over again. Before the next inevitable breach, the president and Congress need to take action on our broken security model.”

Colonial Pipeline will only “bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations,” the company said in a statement, according to Politico.

With the pipeline that meets about half of the East Coast’s transportation fuel needs sidelined, prices for wholesale gasoline in the futures market rose up to 4 percent Sunday evening, hitting levels unseen since 2018 at nearly $2.22 per gallon.

“Even a temporary shutdown will likely drive already rising national retail gas prices over $3 per gallon for the first time since 2014,” Jay Hatfield, chief executive of Infrastructure Capital Management and an investor in natural gas and oil pipelines and storage, told