Petrol stations along the east coast of America are starting to run out of fuel as North America’s biggest petroleum pipeline fights to recover from a cyber attack that has paralysed it for days.

From Virginia to Florida and Alabama, fuel stations are reporting that they have sold out of petrol as supplies in the region dwindle and panic buying sets in.

The White House said it was aware of shortages in the south-east and was trying to alleviate the problem.

Four days into the crisis, Colonial Pipeline Co has managed only to operate a small segment of the pipeline manually as a stopgap measure and doesn’t expect to be able to substantially restore service before the weekend.

The risk is that by that point drivers or airlines may already be suffering severe fuel shortages, while refineries on the Gulf Coast could be forced to idle operations because they have nowhere to put their product. US average retail petrol prices have risen to their highest since late 2014 due to the disruption, almost touching $3 (€2.46) per gallon.

That could add to broader inflationary pressures as commodity prices from timber to copper also surge.

The Colonial pipeline is the most important conduit to distribute petrol, diesel and jet-fuel in the US, moving the products from the refiners based on the Gulf Coast into urban areas from Atlanta to New York and beyond.

Each day, it ships about 2.5 million barrels – more than the entire oil consumption of Germany – connecting more than 20 refineries with about 200 distribution centres.

The vital conduit has been shut down since late Friday. Without the Colonial pipeline, many cities and airports must seek alternative supplies, either fuel imported by tanker or, if landlocked, relying on trucks.

On Monday, the FBI pointed the finger at a ransomware gang known as DarkSide. While cyberattacks are increasingly used around the world as a weapon against geopolitical rivals, there was no indication the current crisis could boil over internationally.

President Joe Biden stopped short of blaming the Kremlin, despite some evidence that the hackers or the software they used are “in Russia”.

"I'm going to be meeting with President Putin," Mr Biden said. "So far there's no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved. Although, there is evidence the actor's ransomware is in Russia. They [Moscow] have some responsibility to deal with this."

Anne Neuberger, the White House deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said that the group has been on the FBI's radar for months.

She said its business model is to demand ransom payments and then split the proceeds with the ransomware developers, relying on what she said was a “new and very troubling variant.”

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the attack “tells you how utterly vulnerable we are” to cyberattacks on US infrastructure.

Russia has no connection to the cyber attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday.

Colonial chief executive officer Joe Blount assured officials that the company has complete operational control of the pipeline and won’t restart shipments until the ransomware has been neutralised.

Government officials haven’t advised Colonial on whether it ought to pay the ransom, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger said during a briefing.

In the meantime, fuel supplies are dwindling just as the nation’s energy industry was gearing up to meet stronger fuel demand from summer travel. Americans are once again commuting to the office and booking flights after a year of Covid-19 restrictions.

In the first sign of the potential disruption to air travel, American Airlines Group Inc said it was adjusting two long-haul routes that originate in Charlotte, North Carolina, to add fuel stops.

Flights to Hawaii will call in at Dallas-Fort Worth airport, while London-bound aircraft will make a stop in Boston.

Airlines flying out of Philadelphia International Airport are burning through jet-fuel reserves and the airport has enough to last “a couple of weeks”, a spokeswoman said.

The US east coast is losing around 1.2 million barrels a day of petrol supply due to the disruption, according to a note from industry consultant FGE. 
The shutdown has prompted frenzied moves by traders and retailers to secure alternative supplies.