News wire — U.S. officials said on Tuesday seven energy companies have been impacted by an oil discharge near Main Pass Oil Gathering Co’s (MPOG) pipeline system in the Gulf of Mexico that is estimated to have released more than a million gallons of crude oil.
The 67-mile long pipeline was closed by MPOG on Thursday morning after crude oil was spotted around 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River delta, near Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans.
Officials said investigations and surveys were ongoing to determine the source of the discharge, but added that there were no reported injuries or shoreline impacts so far.
There has been no impact on vessels and the waterway remains open to all commercial and recreational vessel traffic, officials said.
“We’re not saying that was the exact amount. We are not going to know the exact amount of oil that was discharged into the Gulf of Mexico until we find the source,” said Captain Kelly Denning, deputy commander, sector New Orleans.
“They’re suspected responsible party but we won’t know until we find the source which is why we keep referring to them as the responding party,” said Denning.
Talos, W&T Offshore, Occidental and Australia’s Byron Energy (BYE.AX), which operate in the area, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comments on the spill.
Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shilpi Majumdar – Reuters