Exxon Announce 80,000 gallon Oil Spill in Rural Louisiana

When we think of oil spills we tend to think of large slicks in the ocean, killing seabirds and damaging marine ecosystems. Following BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010, and Chevron’s spill off the coast of Brazil in 2011, there has been a lot of focus on oil spills and there prevention. Companies are looking into more efficient and quicker ways of containing oil spills in the ocean, and more effective ways of extracting the oil from the water. New regulations are being introduced to increase safety, and new technologies are being developed that are more reliable.

So it seems odd to me that 80,000 gallons of crude oil managed to spill from a pipeline in rural Louisiana without anyone really noticing.

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that on Saturday night they had to shut down the 22-inch pipeline that carries crude oil from St. James Parish, southeast of Baton Rouge, to northern Louisiana, due to a loss of pressure. And that on Sunday the 80,000 gallons of crude were discovered in Pointe Coupee Parish, northwest of Baton Rouge.

The federal regulators have been informed and the clean-up is being coordinated with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Exxon say that they have no idea how the pipeline broke causing the spill, but that no injuries occurred. They have deployed vacuum trucks to clean up the area, and a team are closely monitoring the air quality for signs of pollution.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com