Oil no longer leaking from pipe after spill in Gulf Of Mexico: LLOG

[October 16, 2017]    (Reuters) - LOG Exploration Offshore said on Monday oil was no longer escaping from a jumper pipeline operated by the company that was fractured, causing a spill into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday.

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Friday it was responding to an oil spill of about 7,950 to 9,350 barrels from an undersea pipe about 40 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The estimated volume of the spill has not changed, said Rick Fowler, vice-president of Deepwater Projects at LLOG Exploration Company.

"The previously reported sheens have dissipated and there continues to be no detection of potentially related oil on the surface as confirmed by multiple flyovers since Friday night."

Offshore oil and gas operator, LLOG Exploration Offshore, LLC reported to the BSEE that the source of the spill was a jumper pipe from Mississippi Canyon Block 209, Well No. 1 and that production from the associated field was shut at the time of the incident, the BSEE has said in a statement.

The BSEE was coordinating with the U.S. Coast Guard on the response, it added.

The Coast Guard was not immediately available for comment.

"The fractured jumper will be recovered and a complete diagnostic will be performed. LLOG will not speculate on the cause of the fracture until that work is complete," Fowler said in an emailed statement.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Mark Potter)

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.