Gulf Production Spills Light Sweet Crude into the Gulf of Mexico

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)–About 630 gallons of oil were discharged Monday from a production facility near Head of Passes in the Gulf of Mexico due the failure of an high-pressure separator, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday.

The Coast Guard in New Orleans was notified at 1:43 p.m CDT on Monday that Louisiana sweet crude oil was discharged from Gulf Production Company, Inc.’s Raphael Pass production facility in Louisiana, the agency said in a press release. “The discharge was reportedly due to the failure of a three-phase high-pressure separator coming from [Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (XOM)] well to the facility,” the agency said.

The Coast Guard said Gulf Production Company is the responsible party, which has contracted ES&H as the oil spill response organization. The well has been manually shut in, the agency added.

An overflight conducted Tuesday by the Coast Guard and ES&H showed that most of the discharge was contained inside the north end of Bull Bay in front of the facility, the agency said.

The Coast Guard said it’s investigating the cause of the incident and that it continues to oversee the clean-up operations.

No injuries were reported.

-By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires

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