Producer
Colonial Pipeline Company
Private pipeline company (Alpharetta GA) operating the largest refined petroleum products pipeline in the United States: 5,500 miles from Houston TX to Linden NJ. Carries approximately 100 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and heating oil — supplying ~45% of all refined petroleum products consumed on the US East Coast. Not a refiner: purely a transport and distribution company. Owned by a consortium: Koch Industries (~28%), IFM Investors (~16%), Shell (~16%), KKR (~16%), CDPQ (~16%), and others. Became the subject of the most-studied critical infrastructure cyberattack in US history when a DarkSide ransomware attack on May 7, 2021 caused a voluntary 6-day operational shutdown, triggering fuel shortages across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.
2
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
3
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs Colonial Pipeline Company supplies
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Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Colonial Pipeline Company makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
Colonial Pipeline Atlanta GA Distribution Hub (Doraville) →
USGeorgia · storage
Colonial Pipeline's major mid-system distribution terminal and operations hub in the Atlanta GA metro area (Doraville/Tucker). Atlanta is the primary petroleum product distribution center for the Southeast; this terminal receives fuel from the Gulf Coast refineries via Colonial and redistributes to Georgia, Tennessee, and surrounding states. During the May 2021 shutdown, Atlanta metro area gas stations ran dry within 2–3 days, triggering the most visible consumer shortage of the Colonial incident. Source: https://www.colpipe.com/about-colonial/our-pipeline
Colonial Pipeline Linden NJ Terminal (Northern Terminus) →
USNew Jersey · storage
Northern terminus of the Colonial Pipeline system at Linden, NJ — the primary refined petroleum products delivery point for the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, one of the world's highest fuel-demand urban markets. The Linden terminal connects to multiple local distribution networks serving New York City, Long Island, and New England. Buckeye Partners also operates the adjacent Perth Amboy NJ marine terminal, creating an integrated import/pipeline receipt hub. Source: https://www.colpipe.com/about-colonial/our-pipeline
Colonial Pipeline System (Houston TX to Linden NJ) →
USSoutheast / Mid-Atlantic · pipeline
5,500-mile dual pipeline (Line 1: gasoline; Line 2: diesel/jet fuel/heating oil) from Houston TX through Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland to Linden NJ. Daily capacity ~100 million gallons; supplies ~45% of all refined petroleum products consumed on the US East Coast. Single largest refined products pipeline in the US. Shut down May 7–12, 2021 during DarkSide ransomware attack — the first critical infrastructure pipeline shutdown from a cyberattack. Source: https://www.colpipe.com/about-colonial/our-pipeline
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Gasoline Transport
45%Distillate Transport (Diesel & Heating Oil)
30%Jet Fuel Transport
20%Terminal & Lateral Operations
5%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2021
Colonial Pipeline's single 5,500-mile system simultaneously supplies: gasoline for consumer driving (45% of East Coast retail gasoline), diesel for commercial trucking and freight (including food distribution trucks), jet fuel for airlines at Southeast and Mid-Atlantic airports, and heating oil for New England homes. These are four completely distinct supply chains — consumer transport, freight logistics, commercial aviation, and residential heating — that all depend on the same physical pipe infrastructure. The DarkSide ransomware attack of May 7, 2021 (which caused Colonial to voluntarily shut down for 6 days) simultaneously triggered: gas station shortages across Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia (consumer transport); airline fuel management at Charlotte, Atlanta, and Raleigh-Durham airports (aviation); trucking fuel management across the Southeast (freight); and heating oil supply concern in New England (residential). All four supply chain disruptions were caused by a single ransomware infection of Colonial's billing system IT infrastructure — not even the operational technology controlling the pipes. The pipeline itself was technically operable; Colonial shut it down because they could not safely bill for product movement. Four critical infrastructure supply chains were disrupted because a pipeline company could not run its invoicing software.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ↗Origin2023
Colonial Pipeline was built between 1961 and 1963 as a joint venture of major US oil companies, including Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of New Jersey (later ExxonMobil), Texaco, and others. The impetus was economic: before Colonial, refined petroleum products traveled from Gulf Coast refineries to the East Coast primarily by ocean tanker — a slow, expensive, weather-dependent method. A dedicated pipeline through the Appalachians would dramatically cut transport costs and improve supply reliability for the rapidly growing postwar East Coast economy. The pipeline's routing through the Appalachian Mountains required significant engineering, particularly through Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia — the same mountain terrain that made the US South historically difficult to industrialize. Colonial was completed in 1963, just as the Interstate Highway System was being built — creating the road network that would depend on Colonial's fuel supply. The pipeline was conceived to enable the car culture it then served for 60+ years. Colonial is now jointly owned by Koch Industries, Shell, KKR, IFM Investors, and the Canadian pension fund CDPQ — a private critical infrastructure asset owned by financial and commodity investors rather than operating energy companies.
Colonial Pipeline Company ↗Concentration2022
Colonial Pipeline Company is a private company with no public stock listing, minimal public financial disclosures, and ownership by financial investors (Koch Industries, IFM Investors, Shell, KKR, CDPQ) whose primary incentive is return on investment rather than national fuel security. The company's cybersecurity posture before the 2021 attack included: a single shared VPN account without multi-factor authentication used as the attack entry point; IT and OT networks with insufficient segmentation; no dedicated cybersecurity operations center; and reliance on third-party managed security services. Following the attack, DHS issued Security Directive SD-02A (May 2021) requiring 24-hour reporting of cyber incidents — Colonial was not previously required to report cyber incidents to the federal government at all, despite carrying 45% of East Coast fuel supply.
U.S. Government Accountability Office ↗