Gasoline prices stand just below $3 per gallon on Wednesday near Morristown. They briefly crossed the $3 threshold on Tuesday, but came back down slightly to $2.95.

WHEELING — In the wake of a shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which serves states near the Gulf of Mexico and up the eastern seaboard, local residents don’t need to rush to the nearest gasoline station to fill up.

Lynda Lambert, media spokeswoman and safety adviser from AAA East Central, had very specific advice for people packing gas cans, 55-gallon drums and shopping bags to go stock up on gas: Don’t.

The shutdown, she said, has created problems with gasoline delivery, rather than a shortage. And Colonial announced Wednesday it had restarted pipeline operations.

“Don’t panic. Don’t panic-buy gasoline, because that’ll only make the situation worse,” Lambert said Wednesday. “Colonial Pipeline’s shutdown over the weekend has affected gasoline delivery. This is not a gasoline shortage; the United States has plenty of gasoline. This is only a delivery issue.

“It was already a problem in this country for delivery, because there was a truck driver shortage. Now, with the pipeline shut down, it’s exacerbating the problem.”

Lambert said the pipeline’s shutdown will most impact southern states and those along the East Coast, including Virginia, but not West Virginia, and especially not the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia or Eastern Ohio.

Colonial initiated the restart of pipeline operations late Wednesday, “which means that all lines, including those lateral lines that have been running manually, will return to normal operations,” the company said in a statement. But it will take several days for deliveries to return to normal, the company said.

Colonial Pipeline originates in Houston, Texas and extends to the Port of New York and New Jersey, reaching across 5,500 miles. On May 7, the pipeline suffered a cyberattack, forcing a shutdown of operations. Colonial Pipeline Company estimates that it delivers around 45% of the gas consumed on the east coast. On Monday, the FBI identified Darkside as the entity responsible for the ransomware attack.

Traci Morgan, President of the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association, said that West Virginia gets almost all of its fuel from the Plantation pipeline, which was unaffected by the attack. She said the panicked purchase of gas from consumers is exacerbating a problem which should go away in short order.

“We get very little fuel from the Colonial pipeline, so we really shouldn’t be affected much at all. The reason we’re having outages is the panic buying going on. Consumers are going in and buying where they don’t need it, or bringing containers and hoarding gasoline. It’s absolutely not necessary, and their actions are really what’s causing the outages we’re seeing.

“I think once Colonial gets back up and the fear starts to go away, people will bring their behavior back to normal and that will take care of the situation. I really think it’ll correct pretty quick once the pipeline gets back up.”

John Saldanha, of West Virginia University’s Chambers College of Business and Economics, said that while some gas stations in the southeastern U.S. have reported fuel outages, critical reserves can be tapped in the event of dangerously low supplies. He also noted the Colonial Pipeline shutdown represented another instance in a long line of supply chain disruptions seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The short answer is no (we’re not in danger of running out of fuel), but the short-term shortage is driving prices up. The reason is that only the transportation infrastructure has been disrupted and presumably not the storage operations. Typically, firms have several days and even weeks’ worth of inventory to supply their markets. Hence, once the pipeline is opened up again and the oil starts flowing, the demand will be met,” Saldanha said.