Thousands of gallons of crude oil have spilled into a US river in the flood-hit state of Colorado, it has emerged.
As much as 125 barrels worth from a damaged storage tank owned by Anadarko spilled into the South Platte River, the state’s oil and gas commission said last night.
The spills comes after huge floods hit the state after a week of torrential downpours along the Rockie Mountains, forcing Anadarko to shut in more than 600 oil wells in the Denver-Julesberg basin.
Anadarko has deployed absorbent booms on the flood-swollen river in a bid to prevent the condensate from causing too much damage, although the cause and timing of the spill are not yet known.
The news comes just a day after Anadarko subsidiary Kerr McGee confirmed condensate had spilled into the South Platte river from a storage tank. Local reports put the amount spilled into the river as more than 5200 gallons.
Anadarko confirmed in a statement that condensate had spilled into the flood waters, and that authorities had been informed.
“To date, we are aware of two tank batteries that were damaged by flood waters, and have associated light-oil releases,” the company said.
“The releases occurred in flood waters associated with the South Platte River and the St. Vrain River, and we have reported them to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the National Response Center, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
“We are actively working under the oversight of these agencies to contain and clean up the releases to the greatest extent possible. We will continue to provide additional information as appropriate.”
Meanwhile Noble Energy, which operates more than 8,000 wells in the region, said three wells had leaked gas following the floods. Two have since been shut in, but a third is still discharging gas and cannot be safely shut down.
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