Gulf of Mexico oil spill shuts in around 61,000 barrels per day of output (updated)

W&T Offshore

22/11/2023 20:05

(Adds background, paragraphs 2, 4-7)
       Nov 22 (Reuters) - Around 61,165 barrels of daily oil
output from at least six producers has been shut in by Third
Coast Infrastructure's underwater pipeline leak in the Gulf of
Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.
    The 67-mile-long (108 km) pipeline was closed by Third
Coast's Main Pass Oil Gathering Co (MPOG) on Thursday morning
after crude oil was spotted around 19 miles (30 km) offshore of
the Mississippi River delta, near Plaquemines Parish, southeast
of New Orleans.
    The oil producers whose facilities are impacted include W&T
Energy VI  WTI.N , Occidental Petroleum  OXY.N , Walter Oil and
Gas, Cantium, Arena Offshore and Talos Energy Ventures  TALO.N ,
the Coast Guard said in a statement, citing estimates from the
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
    While the exact volume of discharged oil was not known, the
Coast Guard, which was leading the clean-up, said initial
calculations placed the volume of the leak at 1.1 million
gallons, or 26,190 barrels.
    Officials said during a press briefing on Tuesday that it
had not yet been established whether Third Coast was responsible
for the spill, as oil recovery efforts continued and underwater
devices surveyed the pipeline to find the leak's source.
    There were no reported injuries or shoreline impacts so far,
and the waterway remains open to all commercial and recreational
vessel traffic, officials added.
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that the
Coast Guard was coordinating with 15 federal entities in charge
of responding to oil pollution incidents, while the National
Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the
leak.

 (Reporting by Deep Vakil and Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; editing
by Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)
 ((DeepKaushik.Vakil@thomsonreuters.com;))