BP has had another spill on the North Slope. Liquids squirted out of a conduit under a road during a pressure test at the Lisburne field. An estimated 2,100 to 4,200 gallons of material from a well mixed with methanol escaped from an eight-inch pipe inside the conduit, and came out both ends of it, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s on-scene coordinator, John Ebel.
The liquids ended up on the pad, and in a pond on the tundra. It is not yet known how much crude oil was in the mix. They are now scraping up the gravel and the tundra. The spill itself was stopped fairly quickly, Ebel says, because workers could use valves on either side of the conduit to take the pressure off:
The pipe inside the conduit just burst, at about 900 pounds of pressure. Ebel says the cause of the break is not yet known. The response is ongoing, and will include cleaning the gravel and restoring the tundra.
sheimel (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8454 | About Steve
