Experts: Thin crack was hard to spot
Big line ruptures usual cause of major oil leaks
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Video of the ruptured pipeline that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil off Southern California shows a thin crack along the top of the pipe that could indicate a slow leak that initially was difficult to detect, experts said Thursday.
The 13-inch-long narrow gash could explain why signs of an oil slick were seen Friday night but the spill eluded detection by the pipeline operator until Saturday morning, they said.
“My experience suggests this would be a darned hard leak to remotely determine quickly,” said Richard Kuprewicz, a private pipeline accident investigator and consultant. “An opening of this type, on a 17-mile-long underwater pipe is very hard to spot by remote indications. These crack-type releases are lower rate and can go for quite a while.”
When pipes experience a catastrophic failure, the breach typically is much bigger, what is referred to in the industry as a “fish mouth” rupture because it gapes wide like the mouth of a fish, he said.
Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that owns and operates three offshore oil platforms and the pipeline south of Los Angeles, said it didn’t know there had been
a spill until its workers detected an oil sheen on the water at 8:09 a.m. Saturday.
The cause of the spill is under investigation by several agencies as the cleanup continues along miles of shoreline on the Orange County coast south of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The Coast Guard on Thursday slightly revised spill estimates to at least about 25,000 gallons and no more than 132,000 gallons.