BP Well in Alaska Stops Leaking Oil, Continues to Release Gas
April 16 2017 - 8:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
BP PLC's out of control well on the North Slope of Alaska
stopped leaking oil on Sunday but continues to release natural gas,
according to the Alaska Department of Environmental
Conservation.
Crews haven't been able to fully shut down the well, which
started leaked on Friday morning, because it is still too dangerous
to access the site, ADEC said.
The amount of oil spilled and whether the crude impacted the
snow-covered tundra nearby isn't yet clear, though it appears that
the crude contamination is contained within the gravel pad site,
according to a person familiar with the matter. So far no injuries
or wildlife impacts have been reported, and the mostly Native
American community of Nuiqsut, about 50 miles west of the oil well,
has been notified of the problem, authorities said.
The London-based energy company said it couldn't quantify how
much oil has spilled in the area.
The leak was initially discovered Friday morning when BP
employees saw crude oil spraying out of the top of it. The spray of
crude, along with "minor" oil leakage over the past few days may be
fairly isolated, according to a statement from ADEC. But the
continuing natural gas leak continues to be a problem.
BP's local subsidiary "is putting together a plan for plugging
the well's top leak that resulted from the damaged pressure gauge;
this plan needs to be implemented before well-killing operations
can take place," ADEC said.
BP's operations in and around Prudhoe Bay account for about 55%
of Alaska's oil and gas production, according to the company.
The oil giant has had several spills and leaks in Alaska over
the years. A 2006 spill due to a corroded pipeline released almost
4,800 barrels of crude, making it the worst oil spill on the North
Slope up to that point in time. A 2009 pipeline problem at a BP oil
field in the state released almost 1,100 barrels of oil; that
rupture and spill was a violation of the Clean Water Act, which
meant BP had breached the terms of its plea agreement for the 2006
accident.
In more recent years, BP has faced intense scrutiny over its
role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
that killed 11 workers and created the largest offshore oil spill
in U.S. federal waters.
Write to Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2017 20:16 ET (00:16 GMT)
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