The pipeline that delivers 90% of Oregon’s fuel supply partially restarted on Tuesday, after a leak forced a total shutdown for more than a week.

The Olympic Pipeline outage caused Gov. Tina Kotek to declare a fuel emergency Monday. A leak near Everett, Washington, forced the line’s shutdown more than a week ago. The pipeline’s operator, major oil company BP, confirmed Tuesday that part of the pipeline’s system has restarted, but declined to say how long it would take to fix the section with the leak.

The governor’s emergency declaration loosens certain regulations to help keep fuel flowing into the state via barge, truck and rail, including allowing truck drivers to work longer hours.

The 400-mile Olympic Pipeline carries gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products from refineries near Seattle down to Portland. Oregon doesn’t have any refining capacity, so when the pipeline is down, fuel has to travel into the state by barge, truck or train — which are all more expensive and less efficient than pipelines.

Last week, the pipeline outage caused fuel shortages at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Some airlines reported adding fuel stops to flights departing from Sea-Tac. However, officials said that’s unlikely to happen at Portland International Airport.

“A big reason why we’re in a good place with jet fuel is that, in Portland, airlines can barge in jet fuel for aircraft at PDX,” Molly Prescott, PDX spokesperson, said. “Whereas that is not an option for SeaTac.”

For Oregon drivers, the governor’s declaration is expected to limit price spikes at the gas pump and avoid a fuel shortage in the state, according to Mike Freese with the Oregon Fuels Association.

But drivers are seeing a small increase in gasoline and diesel prices due to higher transportation costs for fuel providers.

“If you have to rely on a barge, then you’re probably paying a little bit more in fuel costs,” Freese said. “It’s just more expensive to move fuel that way, and then obviously rail and truck are even more expensive — it’s less fuel and more human involvement.”

Oregon’s average gas price heading into the Thanksgiving holiday is around $3.82 per gallon of regular, according to auto club AAA.

“For now, impacts from the latest outage of the Olympic Pipeline appear to be minimal, as the Oregon average has only climbed about four cents since the outage occurred,” Marie Dodds with AAA Oregon/Idaho said in a statement. “With the pipeline partially open again, we expect pump prices in the region to soon resume their seasonal declines.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/11/25/olympic-pipeline-oregon-fuel-emergency-gas-prices/