On or around February 7, 2017, a Hilcorp Energy helicopter pilot spotted gas bubbling along the eight-inch diameter pipeline running beneath Turnagain Arm in Cook Inlet, near Nikiski, Alaska, according to Popular Mechanics.
The pipeline was constructed by Shell in 1964 and is the oldest of 16 platforms in Cook Inlet. But what is interesting about the Hilcorp pipeline incident is that the whole thing was apparently kept quiet until video footage of the leaking gas was in itself leaked, being put on YouTube by the environmental nonprofit group Inletkeeper.
The ruptured pipeline has been spewing between 120,000 to 310,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day into the ocean since Feb. 7, 2017. And probably the logical question anyone might ask is why doesn’t the company shut the pipeline down to stop the release of the gas?
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The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation was notified by Hilcorp on February 20 in a letter that said it could not shut down the pipeline because the action might end up releasing crude oil into the ocean, adding that until the sea ice melted at the end of March, they wouldn’t be able to send divers down to do any repairs, either.
The pipeline was converted from carrying crude oil to natural gas in 2005, and there is still some residual oil left in the line. “If the gas supply were shut in,” Hillcorp said, “seawater would enter the depressurized Pipeline through the leak displacing the remaining gas.” This could, in turn, cause any oil to be forced into the ocean.
The letter went on to say that with “respect to repair, the conditions in the Inlet – the broken ice, exacerbated by high tidal flows and limited daylight – prevent the immediate dispatch of divers to inspect and contain the leak in the pipeline.” The letter goes on, saying that the methane being released by the rupture “may present a physical hazard (asphyxiation), but not a chemical hazard (toxicity).”
Not only is there the possibility of a “dead zone” being created by the methane, but there is the threat to the 340 endangered Beluga whales that frequent the area. A dead zone is an area in the water column where oxygen has been displaced, creating an hypoxic zone where nothing can survive.
After getting no initial response from Hilcorp on what they planned on doing to fix the rupture, Alaska’s Department of Environment Conservation has formally requested that the company respond and provide a plan of action by March 8, a full month since the leak was discovered.
The Huffington Post is not mincing any words in writing about the incident, saying that Hilcorp’s excuse of there being too much ice to do any repairs is lame, to say the least. They add that if the company can’t stop a gas leak in Cook Inlet, what in the world would happen if they had an oil leak in the Beaufort Sea?
That’s right — Hilcorp is seeking to build the Liberty Project, a controversial offshore drilling structure that includes a nine-acre artificial island and a 5.6-mile underwater oil pipeline in the Beaufort Sea. According to its Liberty Project website, partners in the Liberty Project include Hilcorp Alaska, LLC; BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.; and ASRC Exploration, LLC.
