Spillcorp Strikes Again!

Potentially thousands of gallons of natural gas spilled in the Arctic

While we wait for an AK Supreme Court decision in the City of Valdez case on whether Hilcorp can keep its financial information secret from Alaskans, the state announced yet another Hilcorp related spill last week – this time involving a pipeline that was part of the BP-Hilcorp deal. 

Harvest Alaska, one of Hilcorp’s sister corporations, operates the Point Thomson Export Pipeline (PTEP) and that pipeline has now leaked an “unknown quantity of natural gas.”

Harvest reports that they learned of the leak along the 22 mile pipeline on Saturday (Jan 13th) night, at a location about 35 miles east of Prudhoe Bay. The spill spans an area of tundra more than 225 feet long and 20 feet wide with 11,550 gallons (275 barrels) being the max amount of liquid natural gas condensate the pipeline could have potentially leaked. However, the actual volume, total area, and cause of the spill remain under investigation. 

So far, caribou and birds have been observed as close as ½ mile away from the spill and there also are a number of frozen tundra ponds nearby and a small frozen stream roughly 750 ft. away from the leak location. The US Coast Guard has initiated Endangered Species Act emergency section 7 consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Services as potentially listed species or designated critical habitat may be impacted. Contaminated snow from the affected area is being removed from the tundra and transported to Deadhorse for disposal and assessment to help determine the amount of product leaked.

This happens right as an important legislative session has begun in Alaska where legislators will vote on multiple bills that will define the trajectory of energy in our state and could either increase state subsidies for fossil fuel companies, or limit state subsidies (SB 114).

Legislators will also decide how much more money gets appropriated to the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), a state corporation created in 2010 that has already received over $630 million in state funds towards its purpose of building a pipeline from the North Slope primarily for export. 

We need energy policies for our state that will hold oil corporations accountable

…instead of giving them millions more dollars and carte blanche to make a mess of our lands and waters in the process of extracting our resources. If you want to learn more about pending legislation and ways you can get involved in changing energy policies in our state, join us for our Energy Legislation Info Session on Feb. 7th.