Date: 23-Dec-09
Country: ALASKA
Author: Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE - BP has discovered a leak in an oil pipeline from one well at the giant Prudhoe Bay field, the third pipeline leak reported by the oil major over the past month on Alaska's North Slope.
BP said there was no "appreciable" impact to production from the event, which spilled a mixture of oil, produced water and natural gas at Prudhoe Bay, the largest U.S. oil field.
"This was, by every indication, an extremely short-term event. The line broke, the safety valve immediately shut the well off, it was over," said BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc spokesman Steve Rinehart.
The amount of liquid spilled was unknown, state and BP officials said, adding it came from a 6-inch-diameter pipeline that carries product from a single well. The leak was discovered on Monday.
Rinehart said the spilled material appeared to have been limited to the area right by the well, landing on top of snow on the gravel pad.
A ruptured line at the Lisburne field spilled about 46,000 gallons of liquids, a mixture of oil and produced water, according to state officials. That rupture, discovered on November 29, is believed to have been caused by pressure that built up when contents of the line froze into long ice plugs. That event remains under investigation, officials have said.
Another spill, discovered December 2, was from a pipeline inside a manifold building at a different Prudhoe Bay drill site. That spill released an estimated 7,170 gallons of produced water, according to state environmental officials.
BP is on probation following an Alaska pipeline spill in 2006, the largest ever recorded on the North Slope. A term of three years probation was imposed in late 2007 as part of the sentence for criminal environmental violations related to the 212,252-gallon spill at Prudhoe Bay. BP also paid $20 million in fines and restitution.
(Editing by Christian Wiessner)
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