NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Colonial Pipeline's main U.S. gasoline artery is expected to remain shut through Friday as the company continues to search for the source of a suspected leak in Paulding County, Georgia, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Line 1, one of two mainlines on the more than 5,500-mile Colonial system, was shut on Monday night after Colonial received reports of a gasoline release. The pipeline moves gasoline from Texas to North Carolina and was earlier expected to resume service on Tuesday night, according to market sources.

"Colonial continues on-site work to identify the source of the suspected release on our gasoline pipeline," a Colonial spokesperson said on Wednesday. "At this time, we estimate that Line 1 will remain down through Friday," they added.

That timeline puts Line 1's outage on par with a high-profile 2021 cyberattack that forced the entire Colonial network to shut down. During that attack, the company's mainlines were out for about a week, leaving gas stations empty and lifting fuel prices in multiple cities along the East Coast.

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