Conoco reports big oily water spill at Alaska field

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – A corroded pipeline ruptured on Christmas Day at ConocoPhillips’ Kuparuk oil field in Alaska, causing one of the biggest spills of oil-laced water at the field in years, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said on Tuesday.

The 94,920-gallon spill from a corroded water-injection pipeline did not affect production from North America’s second-biggest field and was mostly cleaned up by Tuesday, said Paul Lhotka, an environmental program specialist with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Kuparuk field can produce nearly 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The December 25 incident was reminiscent of a 200,000-gallon crude oil spill at BP Plc’s nearby Prudhoe Bay oil field in 2006 — the worst oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope — which was also caused by corrosion of a pipeline.

Reuters