To find out what probably caused the release of crude oil from an underwater pipeline in San Pedro Bay near Huntington Beach, California, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will hold a video public board meeting next month.
Through a crack that had formed in an underground pipeline on October 1, 2021, crude oil started to leak. After seeing oil on the water’s surface, the pipeline was shut down. About 588 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline, according to the NTSB.
When the oil spill was found more than 9 months later, on January 25, 2021, it was found that the pipeline had been pulled by a ship’s anchor during a storm. The accident was strangely never reported, and the pipeline wasn’t checked until early October 2021, when oil started washing up on beaches in Southern California.
When divers looked more closely, they saw that a piece of the pipeline had moved about 100 feet on the bottom and that there was a 16-inch crack about 4.7 miles west of Huntington Beach. Following the first event with the anchor dragging, two containerships, MSC Danit and Beijing, were named as possible parties.
At the time of the accident, the anchorages in San Pedro Bay were full of ships waiting to enter the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This was because of a huge increase in imports caused by the pandemic, which slowed down the country’s supply lines and caused a backlog around Southern California ports that had never been seen before.
The group that runs MSC Danit, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, said in April that it had paid claims with Amplify Energy’s subrogate insurers. Amplify Energy owns and runs the pipeline. The China Shipping Company (COSCO) owns the Beijing and has a lease aboard it.
NTSB to Determine Cause of Southern California Oil Spill After Anchor Strikes on Pipeline @NTSB has waited over two years to take a look into this? https://t.co/d5w7RgIw7w
— Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️ (@mercoglianos) November 22, 2023
Once the deal was reached, MSC said that the amount would be paid for by both MSC and Costamare. They did not say that they were responsible for the environmental damage, but they did say that they would pay for it. According to a separate report, Amplify Energy said it had gotten $85 million in net proceeds from the ships that were thought to have hit the pipeline.
Since it was found that the company kept running the pipeline for hours after the leak alarms went off and then restarted it improperly after it had been shut down, they agreed to plead guilty to criminal negligence charges and pay almost $13 million for the spill last year.
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Board members of the NTSB will talk about safety problems related to the accident at the meeting on December 5. Along with making any safety suggestions that are needed, they will also decide on what they think was the most likely cause of the crude oil leak.