ConocoPhillips Alaska has reported to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation that the cause of the produced water spill at the Kuparuk River 2H drill site March 26 was internal corrosion of the injection water pipeline.
The company told the department it has begun a comprehensive investigation, which will include a technical review of its Kuparuk corrosion and monitoring mitigation program.
Two acres were impacted by some 111,300 gallons (2,650 barrels) of a mixture of 30 percent seawater and 70 percent produced water, which was released to both gravel pad and tundra. Produced water is a mixture of water and crude oil.
The source of the spill was a six-inch produced water/seawater injection line that transported water from central processing facility No. 2 to drill site 2H for injection. The leak was in the below-grade section of the cased pipeline under the gravel pad.
When the pipe was removed they found a “small hole, about half the size of an eraser at the end of a pencil,” caused by internal corrosion, ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience told Petroleum News. The pipe is being replaced with new pipe, she said April 13.
—Kristen Nelson
