US Coast Guard boards vessel suspected of damaging subsea pipeline

The US Coast Guard has boarded a container ship which dragged its anchor near to a Southern California subsea pipeline which was the source of an oil spill earlier this month.

Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board investigators boarded MSC Danit on the 16^th October in the Port of Long Beach, according to a release from the agency.

In stormy weather on the 25^th January, the ship dragged its anchor in close proximity to the pipeline which was the source of a major oil spill off Orange County this month which forced the closure of beaches and sullied wetlands.

The Coast Guard has designated MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA, operator of the vessel, and Dordellas Finance Corporation, its owner, as “parties in interest” to the investigation. An e-mail to Mediterranean Shipping sent on the 16^th October for comment wasn’t returned.

The growth of marine life around the breach in the Amplify Energy Corporation pipeline indicated that an anchor dragged by the line a while ago, rather than recently, US Coast Guard officials said last week, adding that they were looking at the 24^th and 25^th January as dates of interest because of a large storm at that time. A total of 24 ships pulled anchor and sailed into open ocean due to the rough conditions.

The Danit was in the correct anchorage location on the 18^th January but, on the 25^th January, it started to drift to the east and crossed the pipeline multiple times that morning before heading offshore towards Catalina Island, according to John Amos, president of SkyTruth, which used AIS ship tracking data from exactEarth to research ships in the area.

“Amplify Energy remains focused on environmental remediation efforts as a part of the Unified Command and cooperating with all regulatory requirements and investigations,” the pipeline operator said in a statement on the 17^th October.

Source: WorldOil