Minor Crude Oil Spill News

The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment in Kenai is investigating a minor crude oil spill that occurred this morning on the Dillon oil and gas production platform located in Cook Inlet. The source of the spill on the platform was a cracked fitting on the discharge side of a high-pressure pump used to re-inject crude oil into the well. The exact size of the spill is unknown, but reports from Unocal officials indicate that the maximum size of the spill was 2,310 gallons. Most of the spilled product did not enter the waters of Cook Inlet, but was contained on the platform. It is not known how much crude oil entered the water. Unocal, in conjunction with CISPRI, conducted over flights of the area and also dispatched the spill response vessel Sea Bulk Montana to the spill location.

Shipping operations at the Southwest Pass, off Louisiana, were not affected by a minor crude oil spill after two crude oil tankers collided on March 15, Coast Guard officials said. The spill took place approximately 40 miles south of Grand Isle, La., when a lightering vessel owned by American Eagle Tankers Inc., the Eagle Carina, collided with a Chevron oil tanker, the J. Dennis Bonney, while preparing to transfer crude oil from the tanker to the lightering vessel, company officials said. It was estimated that approximately 7,560 to 8,400 gallons of crude oil were spilled. The Coast Guard classifies an offshore spill of this volume as minor. There were no injuries resulting from the collision and no reports of impact to marine wildlife resulting from the spill, officials said.

The U.S. Coast Guard said that shipping operations at the Southwest Pass, off Louisiana, were not affected by a minor crude oil spill after two crude oil tankers collided on Wednesday evening. "The Coast Guard has established a safety zone around the incident area. Normal shipping operations will continue outside the safety zone," said the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Morgan City, La. The spill which took place approximately 40 miles south of Grand Isle, La., was not near the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) as earlier reported, said Mark Bugg, scheduling manager for the LOOP, the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for the country's crude oil imports.