Prudhoe pipeline spill clean-up complete

Petroleum News Anchorage staff

BP Exploration (Alaska) spokesman Paul Laird told Petroleum News June 18 that cleanup of the pipeline spill at the North Slope’s Prudhoe Bay field is complete, “pending subsidence of flooding in the area, resulting from spring break-up.”

Laird said the “area remains boomed — triple-boomed — and sheens are being skimmed as they appear. Once the flooding has subsided, soil testing will be performed, and a determination will be made as to whether remediation is required.”

Environmental damage is expected to be minimal to none, he said. “Wildlife hazing in the area continues, as does monitoring of the spill area.

“A sleeve was placed over the section of pipe where the leak occurred, and production from Y & P Pads resumed” on June 14, Laird said. Some 10,000 barrels of oil a day is produced from pads Y and P.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has updated to 143 barrels (6,000 gallons) the estimated volume of unprocessed liquids (three-phase liquid) released from the 24-inch underground pipeline at a caribou crossing at Prudhoe Bay. The spill estimate includes some 36 barrels (1,500 gallons) of crude oil and some 107 barrels (4,500 gallons) of produced water, the department said May 30.

The time of the spill is unknown. A Prudhoe Bay field operator noticed the spill during routine inspections and reported it to the department May 27.

BP originally estimated the release at 500 gallons (12 barrels) of unprocessed fluids.

The pipeline carries unprocessed fluids from Prudhoe Bay well pads P, Y and H to Gathering Center 1.

The department said the cause of the release is suspected to be corrosion, but that has not been confirmed.

BP shut in the pads feeding product to Gathering Center 1 through the ruptured line, the department said. Alaska Clean Seas, the North Slope spill cooperative, has been activated and is working to delineate the spill impacted area, to block culverts to the spill site to contain and limit impacts and to deter wildlife from the area.

The release was to tundra, gravel and a small pond and the department said that snow drift over the impacted area and pipelines is believed to have limited wildlife impact; no wildlife impacts have been reported.

Waiting on final volume number

BP still doesn’t have a good final volume number, Beaudo said. The DEC numbers — 1,500 gallons of crude oil and 4,500 gallons of produced water — are the working estimate and, as of June 18, were still the numbers BP was using. There is still melting snow in tanks up there, he said.

Preliminary findings indicate that corrosion caused the leak, he said, but there hasn’t been visual confirmation yet and BP won’t make an official conclusion on the cause until the final investigation is filed.

Beaudo said that BP doesn’t “anticipate any long-term impact to the environment as a result of the spill.

“The cleanup crews did a great job,” he said.