Colonial Pipeline:

Fueling Preparedness for Optimal Crisis Response

Opportunity

Cookerly has worked with Colonial Pipeline as a lead crisis communications agency since 2014. As the operator of the nation’s largest refined petroleum products pipeline system, Colonial charged our team with helping it build and train an alliance of public relations agencies along its 5,500-mile pipeline network to provide communications support for its respective regions in the event of an emergency.

Strategy | Execution

For more than a decade, the Cookerly team has completed multiple crisis responses and helped the company enhance its resources to better address future issues, including:

  • Assisted Colonial in identifying/training six partner agencies to serve as response teams.
  • Developed curriculum for ongoing crisis communications training and planning.
  • Conducted crisis drills and tabletop exercises with partner agencies, assuring all are positioned to respond quickly and execute their respective responsibilities effectively.

Results | Impact

  • The program’s infrastructure originally involved only the Cookerly team. As partner agencies joined the network, emergency responses transitioned to a combination of Cookerly and partner agencies. Today, it includes instances where local teams provide rapid response and onsite support based on locations and breadth of issues.
  • Activated multiple times, the efforts have enhanced responses to pipeline spills and associated issues and sharpened the combined Colonial Pipeline-partner agencies’ communications functions.
  • Colonial is better positioned to keep regulators, petroleum shippers, fuel retailers, transportation providers and other critical audiences informed in a timely manner about efforts to remediate problems, restore services and protect the environment.