BP Well in Alaska Stops Leaking Oil, Continues to Release Gas

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 16, 2017 20:16 ET (00:16 GMT)

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