Alaska North Slope crude spilled into the Pacific Ocean about 11/2 miles off Huntington Beach, Calif., last week from a tanker involved in a lightening operation.
The oil leaked the afternoon of Feb. 7 from the 82,300 dwt American Trader, chartered to a British Petroleum affiliate by American Trading & Transport Co., New York. BP took responsibility for the spill and began clean-up efforts.
Various sources estimated the spilled volume at 6,000-8,000 bbl, 2-3% of the amount of the March 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound.
A diver found one tank breached. One of the tanker's anchors was thought to have caused the rupture in sea swells, but the exact cause was under investigation.
Crews, including a local oil spill cooperative, ringed the vessel with boom and deployed boom along popular swimming beaches and the Bolsa Chica wildlife preserve.
The Trader, a U.S. flag vessel built in 1969, had taken on a full load of 21 million gal of crude from the 176,000 dwt Keystone Canyon, which had arrived from Valdez, Alas.
The Trader was maneuvering toward an offshore unloading buoy when the incident occurred and remained there at anchor.
The crude was believed destined for Golden West Refining Co.'s 40,600 b/cd Santa Fe Springs refinery.
Regardless of its ultimate impact, the spill is likely to boost momentum toward passage in November of California's new Environmental Protection Initiative (OGJ, Feb. 5, p. 30).
Even though it involved tankers, it will be a windfall for opponents of offshore drilling and could eliminate tankering as an alternative for Chevron and-partners' Point Arguello field project in the Santa Barbara Channel.
An updated transportation study by Arthur D. Little Inc. for Santa Barbara County showed economics of pipelining Point Arguello crude closer to those of Chevron's preferred tankering method than in a previous study but still not as favorable to the producing companies (OGJ, Dec. 18, 1989, p. 14).
California Public Utilities Commission, in a long awaited decision, said so many gas pipelines are competing to serve California from out of state it does not need to support a particular project (OGJ, Feb. 5, p. 29).
CPUC will support any project-except Altamont, which it ruled outside its jurisdiction-that meets its conditions designed to prevent costs from falling disproportionately on residential customers and create access to more gas sources.
The commission also sought comments from the state's three main utilities on CPUC proposals to restructure the practices by which gas is purchased and delivered to industrial customers, including spinoff of nonregulated affiliates.
One of the proposed pipelines, Kern River Gas Transmission Co., formally accepted its federal optional certificate, planned to award construction contracts during third quarter 1990, and start up by yearend 1991.
Meanwhile, unseasonably mild weather caused February spot gas prices in the U.S. to fall an average 500/MMBtu from January prices, the largest monthly drop since Natural Gas Clearinghouse, Houston, began keeping figures in the mid-1990's.
More Mideast and African countries intend to press war reconstruction and increases in oil productive capacity.
Iraq, which previously shunned equity investment from outside, plans to include joint venture exploration/development projects within its borders as part of its overall effort to boost productive capacity, says Joseph Stanislaw, managing director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
Algeria's Sonatrach intends to reopen a number of oil wells in an attempt to meet its new OPEC quota of 827,000 b/d for first half 1990.
Sonatrach General Manager Abdulhak Bouhafs said the company's priority this year is to bring production to the quota level and sustain it at this rate.
Algerian output averaged 720,000 b/d in second half 1989.
More Soviet and Chinese projects using outside assistance are on tap.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank has approved a $9.75 million loan to enable China National Offshore Oil Corp. to buy engineering design services from McDermott International Inc., New Orleans, for construction of a Bohai Gulf gas processing plant.
ORS Corp.'s EOR International Inc., Calgary, and Norsk Bronnservice AS (NBS) of Norway signed a memorandum of understanding for a three to five well electromagnetic well stimulation pilot project in an unidentified Soviet field. NBS formed a joint venture with the Soviet Ministry of Geology for the project.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Soviet Union will begin high level trade talks in Washington this week to establish normal commercial relations.
Soviet negotiators want "most favored nation" tariff treatment for their country.
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. will spend about $1 billion during 5 years to repair trans-Alaska pipeline corrosion damage.
The company blamed coating and wrapping failures and said the problems caused it no concern about system integrity.
Replacing a buried 8.9 mile segment in the Atigun flood plain 160 miles south of Prudhoe Bay may cause a 2 day shutdown in 1991.
Alyeska has proposed to raise 1990 tariffs to $3.86/bbl, up 86 from 1989, to cover repair costs.
A year of stable oil prices is triggering more enhanced oil recovery spending in West Texas.
Shell Western E&P Inc. last week said it will spend the $100 million needed to expand the existing carbon dioxide EOR flood in the eastern portion of Wasson field's Denver Unit, Yoakum County, Tex., to include the western portion as well (see map, OGJ, July 8, 1985, p. 19).
The field already was the largest CO2 EOR project in the world in terms of enhanced production. Shell expects the expansion-including doubling of CO2 recovery plant inlet capacity to 290 MMcfd-to bring recovery to about 60%, of original oil in place and extend field life at least 25 years.
A crew is acquiring 150 miles of regional seismic data in Northwest Mississippi to track the buried Ouachita tectonic belt eastward from the Arkoma basin (see story, p. 24).
Seismic Specialists Inc., Denver, said the data will provide a framework for exploration of Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle equivalents.
Clean Air Act legislation has been pulled from the Senate floor so the Bush administration officials and senators can work out a compromise bill.
After many senators expressed concern about the cost of the environment committee's bill, a group of 10 senators and five administration officials began closed door negotiations.
The negotiators immediately relaxed provisions on industrial sources of air toxins and smog, deciding to control plants that emit more than 100 tons/year of pollutants, but were divided on limiting auto emissions, the acid rain issue, and others.
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