The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation today announced yesterday that a leaking oil and gas well on the North Slope was successfully plugged.
The well, owned by BP, began spewing oil and gas last Friday.
The spray of crude oil was halted on Saturday. But it took responders until early Monday morning to curb the flow of gas by pumping saltwater down the hole. A mechanical plug was installed yesterday.
The state still doesn’t know what caused the leak, or how much oil was spilled.
But the state reports that observations from two overflights indicate the crude oil spray did not reach the nearby tundra, and the impacted area appears to be less than 1.5 acres.
Elizabeth Harball is a reporter with Alaska's Energy Desk, covering Alaska’s oil and gas industry and environmental policy. She is a contributor to the Energy Desk’s Midnight Oil podcast series. Before moving to Alaska in 2016, Harball worked at E&E News in Washington, D.C., where she covered federal and state climate change policy. Originally from Kalispell, Montana, Harball is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
