DIt took Amplify Energy Corp. more than three hours to stop California’s worst oil spill in nearly three decades, according to a government report.
Following a low-pressure alert around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 2 for the San Pedro Bay Pipeline, Amplify’s Beta Offshore unit did not shut down the pipeline until 6:01 a.m., the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said. He said In a corrective action order Tuesday.
The company did not return messages seeking comment.
Bill Caram, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust, a group that deals with pipeline operators, said that while all the details are not known, “the facts mentioned are of great concern to us.” Operational reasons can cause a pipeline to suddenly lose pressure, but “we would expect the pipeline to shut down much faster than three hours” and also report that more quickly, he said.
The largest oil spill in the Golden State since the 1994 earthquake ruptured a pipeline into as many as 3,000 barrels along the California coast, according to Amplify estimates. The oil drifted south, closing popular surf beaches and contaminated wetlands.
Divers found a 13-inch crack in the pipeline that was “the likely source of the oil spill,” U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Rebecca Orr said at a news conference on Tuesday. About 4,000 feet of pipeline was “displaced laterally by 105 feet.”
Martin Wilsher, CEO of Amplify, said at the press conference that the footage showed that the pipeline had been “pulled like a string.” He added that this type of dislocation “is not common.”
He said his company did not confirm the spill until about 8 a.m. that day, when a sheen of oil was identified in nearby waters.
“No matter what the cause, we will do everything we can to make things right,” Wilsher said.
After the pipeline was shut down, PETA did not report the incident to the National Response Center for another three hours, according to the report. Initial estimates indicate that the pipeline released about 700 barrels, which is much lower than the number announced by the company.
It ordered Beta Offshore to review and evaluate the effectiveness of its emergency response plan, including “response and support at the scene, coordination, notification, and communication with emergency responders and public officials,” according to the document. PHMSA did not determine whether the time it took to hang up the line and notify the National Response Center was too slow or sufficient.
An email and call to PHMSA regarding the appropriateness of the three-hour wait were not immediately returned.
The root cause of the accident remains uncertain, but “initial reports indicate that the failure may have been caused by an anchor that connected the pipeline, causing a partial rupture,” according to the order. There is no confirmation of which vessel caused the leak.
-With assistance from Mike Jeffers.