The cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline that resulted this week in gas and diesel shortages at the pump and prices at a seven-year high has seen a few non-Jones Act ships enter the country.
Although the pipeline was restarted on Wednesday, it will take some days for fuel supplies to be replenished at gas stations. With that in mind, on Wednesday evening, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) granted a waiver to the Jones Act to one foreign shipping company to help ease the temporary fuel shortages.
“This waiver will help provide for the transport of oil products between the Gulf Coast and East Coast ports to ease oil supply constraints,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement.
According to news on Thursday afternoon, US refiner Valero Energy was granted a Jones Act waiver, and at least a couple of other refiners have requested the same.
Colonial Pipeline is understood to have paid $5m in cryptocurrency to Russian hackers to resolve the ransomware attack.
