|
CIPL dealing with two spills at Drift River facility on west side
Cook Inlet Pipeline Co. is dealing with two spills at the Drift River Terminal Facility on the west side of Cook Inlet.
In an Aug. 2 situation report the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Spill Prevention and Response, said the spills were discovered associated with over pressurization of a 20-inch fill line. DEC said the first spill was discovered July 2, the second spill July 28.
The spill reported July 2 was discovered by a CIPL operator in a facility inspection. The second spill was discovered by CIPL staff July 28 while conducting an inspection of the areas above the buried 20-inch fill line.
The spill reported July 2 was of 14 gallons of crude oil inside a valve box and 1 gallon spilled to the ground. The July 28 spill was reported as a crude oil stain at the surface of a buried 20-inch fill line blind flange between tanks 1 and 4. DEC said the quantity of oil in the second spill is unknown; the stain area was reported as 24 feet by 24 feet by 30 feet.
DEC said cause of the spill was: “Over pressurization of the 20-inch fill line while emptying two tanks in preparation for internal inspection.”
Work on tanks In a detailed description of the cause of the over pressurization DEC said CIPL was pumping down two tanks to transfer their contents to one of the 270,000-barrel crude oil storage tanks approved for use at Drift River.
The agency said while the procedure used at Drift River indicated transfer was being made to tank 4, in fact the two tank contents were being transferred into tank 3, at the same time crude oil from the CIPL crude oil transmission pipeline was being moved into tank 3 through the 20-inch fill line. When the transfer from the crude oil transmission pipeline was ended for the day, the controller at the Kenai gas field closed the fill valve to tank 3. But the pump used to draw down the two tanks was still operating.
“Closing the fill valve to Tank 3 closed off the flow path of the oil from the two tanks into Tank 3,” DEC said. “Due to the operations being conducted simultaneously, the closure of the valve to Tank 3, and the continued throughput from the two tanks, the 20-inch fill line was over-pressurized.”
DEC said CIPL personnel recovered the 14 gallons of crude oil inside the valve box and moved it to storage tanks. The area where 1 gallon was spilled was excavated.
“CIPL also reviewed and changed their procedures on removing liquids from the two tanks to ensure this type of incident does not occur,” the agency said.
DEC staff few to the Drift River facility July 21 to investigate the spill reported on July 2 and to conduct a facility inspection.
The agency said no impacts to wildlife have been reported.
DEC said it will request CIPL submit a plan on how the company plans to identify any additional potential spills from the 20-inch fill line, remove remaining crude in the line, test line integrity and identify future plans for the line. The agency also plans additional site visits to monitor cleanup of the spill discovered July 28 and said DEC representatives will be present for testing or activities involving the 20-inch line.
CIPL is owned by Hilcorp which acquired a 50 percent interest in early 2012 when its purchase of the Cook Inlet assets of Union Oil Company of California closed; it acquired the remaining 50 percent from Pacific Energy Alaska Holdings in late 2012. Hilcorp has operated CIPL since 2011.
The Drift River facility was constructed in 1967 and has been operated by CIPL since its construction. It stores crude oil produced on the west side of Cook Inlet until it is loaded into tankers. The 42-mile CIPL moves oil from the Granite Point, McArthur River, Redoubt Shoal and Trading Bay fields to Drift River terminal, also owned by CIPL.
- KRISTEN NELSON
| 