NTSB To Uncover Cause Of Crude Oil Spill After Anchor Strike On Underwater Pipeline In San Pedro Bay

The National Transportation Safety Board (abbreviated the NTSB) will host a virtual public board meeting next month to identify the likely cause of a crude oil discharge in San Pedro Bay close to Huntington Beach in California, which was caused by anchor strikes on an underwater pipeline.

On October 1, 2021, crude oil started to spill from a fracture in an underwater pipeline. The pipeline had to be shut down when oil was discovered on the water’s surface. According to the NTSB, the pipeline leaked about 588 barrels of oil.

Investigations eventually found that the pipeline was dragged by a vessel’s anchor on January 25, 2021, over nine months before the oil spill was discovered.

Surprisingly, no one reported the event, and the pipeline went uninspected until oil started washing up on beaches of Southern California at the beginning of October 2021.

Divers discovered that a piece of the pipeline had been moved around 100 feet on the ocean floor, with a 16-inch crack situated about 4.7 miles west of Huntington Beach. MSC Danit and Beijing were named as entities of interest in the initial anchor-dragging event.

The incident occurred while ships waited for entry into the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles as a result of the pandemic-induced import rush that strained the nation’s supply networks and produced a first-of-its-kind backup off Southern California ports.

In April, the MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which operates MSC Danit, reported that it had paid claims with Amplify Energy, the pipeline’s owner and operator, through subrogate insurance. Costamare owns the Beijing, which is chartered by China’s COSCO.

At the time of the settlement, MSC stated that the money would be funded jointly by Costamare and MSC without confessing guilt or obligation for the environmental harm.

Separately, Amplify Energy announced that it had collected $85 million in net revenues from the ships that were thought to have collided with the pipeline.

After it came to light that the firm kept running the pipeline for several hours after leak alarms had gone off and then wrongly restarted the pipeline after it was shut down, the company agreed last year to plead guilty to criminal negligence charges and give nearly $13 million about the spill.

The NTSB board of directors will meet on December 5 to consider safety problems related to the incident. They will also vote on the likely cause and findings of the crude oil spill and any necessary precautionary measures.

Reference- amandainfoupdates

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