ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. has signed a consent agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency stemming from a December 2007 spill near the ConocoPhillips Kuparuk topping plant on Alaska’s North Slope. As part of the agreement, the company paid a $45,000 penalty.
Under terms of a separate settlement with Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation, ConocoPhillips also agreed to recover and restore the 0.32-acre spill area and pay penalties and costs totaling $267,000 for the 2007 spill and a 2006 spill at the same site.
EPA enforcement documents said a failure in a 24-in. OD flow line discharged about 102 bbl of mixed water and crude oil in December 2007 into the nearby frozen arctic tundra.
Company and contract responders built a 300-yard long ice road after the spill to improve site access and also built snow berms to create secondary containment to help contain the spill, EPA said. The 2006 spill released 500 gal of crude-contaminated water.
ConocoPhillips’ Kuparuk topping plant runs a 15,000 b/d atmospheric distillation column, producing heating oil from pipeline crude supplied by Central Processing Facility #1.
Contact Chris Smith at [email protected]
