Key California Oil Pipeline On Course to Shut Without Fee Boost

California’s largest inland oil pipeline is in danger of closing within months without state approval for a rate increase and other measures, a shutdown that would choke off some crude supplies to at least two San Francisco-area refiners.

Crimson Midstream LLC’s San Pablo Bay Pipeline that hauls oil from the Bakersfield area to Northern California refiners is losing $2 million a month, creating “severe financial distress” for the company, Robert Waldron, CEO of Crimson’s parent CorEngery Infrastructure Trust, wrote in a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom’s office this week.

The pipeline’s fortunes have waned amid a “sudden ...