Ship’s anchor among possible causes of California oil spill

Company suspected in leak had dozens of violations

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Officials investigating one of California’s largest oil spills are looking into whether a ship’s anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude, authorities said Tuesday.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said that divers have examined more than 8,000 feet of pipe and are focusing on “one area of significant interest.”

An anchor striking the pipeline is “one of the distinct possibilities” behind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told a news conference.

Coast Guard officials said cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area.

“We’re looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that’s in the assessment phase right now,” said Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Jeannie Shaye.

Houston-based Amplify Energy has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations that were severe enough that drilling had to be curtailed or stopped to fix the problem, regulatory records show.

In all, the Amplify subsidiary known as Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity, and a separate incident when crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

The suspected pipeline leak sent 126,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean waters, fouling the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

Environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

RINGO H.W. CHIU/AP Cleanup contractors deploy skimmers and floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sunday. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.