As crews start cleaning the 3,000 barrels of crude oil washing up on the beaches of Huntington Beach, the bull’s-eye is now on Amplify Energy, which owns the offshore Beta oilfield. Amplify says that the leaking has stopped, and the 17-mile pipeline secured. Yet to be revealed is what caused the spill; authorities Monday afternoon said they were investigating the possibility that a ship’s anchor ruptured a pipeline. Investors weren’t waiting. Shares in Amplify are down 50% today.
This doesn’t look to be a case of neglected assets. Amplify has been active in the Beta field, and this year has invested several million dollars in recent quarters there, rehabbing one well and planning to redrill two others. “The initial phase of the Beta field development program is currently underway,” the company said in its second-quarter results.
Amplify needed the uplift, having lost $35 million in the second quarter on revenue of $80 million. The spill, however, makes it more likely that instead of redeveloping the Beta field, Amplify will end up shutting it down. That is, if it can even afford the cleanup cost. with 3,000 barrels that leaked from a field operated by Venoco with pipelines operated by Plains All-American.
Did An Anchor from a Container Ship Cause the CaliforniaOilSpill | What's Going on With Shipping? This episode breaks down past pipeline strikes, did an anchor hook a pipeline, who is charge of the ports of LA/LB and who should be over this incident?
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