OCEAN CURRENTS ARE DISPERSING OIL SPILL

Some of the crude oil that spilled from a pipeline into the waters off Southern California has been breaking up naturally in ocean currents, a Coast Guard official said Wednesday as authorities sought to determine the scope of the damage.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said some of the oil has been pushed to the south by currents. Storms earlier in the week may also have helped disperse the oil, which he said could make it more challenging to skim as it spreads out.

“Most of this oil is separating and starting to float further south,” he said while accompanying reporters aboard a boat to the scene of the spill. “The biggest problem is the uncertainty, the amount that leaked into the water. We are at this point unsure of the total amount that leaked out.”

How much oil leaked remains unclear. The pipeline operator, Amplify Energy Corp., has publicly pegged the maximum amount of the spill at 126,000 gallons of heavy crude. But the company told federal investigators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that initial measurements put the total only around 29,400 gallons.

The water and shoreline are still off-limits in Huntington Beach and several other areas, but people are allowed on the sand. Beachgoers played volleyball on the Huntington Beach sand Wednesday morning as walkers and bikers passed near the city’s famed pier. A few globs of oil were visible along the shoreline but no smell remained.

Investigators have said the spill may have been caused by a ship’s anchor that hooked, dragged and tore open an underwater pipeline. Federal officials also found that the pipeline owner did not quickly shut down operations after a safety system alerted to a possible spill.

The Coast Guard on Wednesday investigated a vessel in Oakland as part of its probe. The Rotterdam Express container ship was in the area of the pipeline before the spill was discovered, according to a source familiar with the investigation, and later headed north. Investigators are likely looking for data showing the ship’s movements and other mechanical information.

Global positioning data provided to the Los Angeles Times shows that the Rotterdam Express, a German container ship, was anchored Friday near the area of the oil spill and was in Port of Oakland on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Port of Oakland confirmed the ship arrived in port Wednesday.

A spokesman for HapagLloyd, the German firm that owns the Rotterdam Express, said that the container ship was anchored in the vicinity of the oil spill, but was “pretty far away from the pipeline.”

Officials say the investigation into the spill could take months.