State Monitoring Effects of Pipeline Break on Fuel Supplies

California energy officials have stepped up their fuel supply monitoring to make sure a recent Bay Area pipeline break doesn’t cause shortages in outlying regions or dangerously deplete fuel inventories before the summer driving season.

Neither is expected to happen, said Claudia Chandler, assistant executive director of the California Energy Commission.

“We’re in good condition right now,” Chandler said. “We’ve been monitoring that whole situation. We don’t have any problems.”

A 14-inch-diameter pipeline that runs from Concord to Reno burst April 28, cutting supplies of jet fuel, diesel and gasoline to Chico, Redding and other remote localities.

Late Friday, the energy commission moved to the so-called verification stage, the first step in an energy emergency contingency plan that authorizes officials to collect real-time information about fuel supplies from refiners, wholesalers, pipeline operators and a host of others that don’t normally provide such data to the state. If further action is warranted, the state can move to ration fuel supplies.

The pipeline returned to service Sunday. Chandler said the state would stay in verification mode for a few more days to continue collecting fuel data.