LOS ANGELES - May 26, 2010 - The trans-Alaska pipeline, partly owned by British energy group BP, remained closed Wednesday as workers cleaned up a crude oil spill which flowed into a containment area, the pipeline operator said.
The spill, which was estimated at several thousand barrels, occurred when power failed during testing of the pump station's fire command system, according to Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, which manages the facility.
"There were no injuries and personnel have been evacuated," the company said.
"The pipeline is currently shut down... an incident management team has been activated to manage the situation."
The spill filled overflowed from a storage tank and into a purpose built concrete containment area, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
"We will not start back up until we are absolutely comfortable that it's safe," Michele Egan, spokeswoman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. was quoted as saying.
Alyeska is owned by a consortium of oil companies, including BP, and the 800 mile (1,280 kilometer) trans-Alaska carries around 10 percent of daily U.S. oil production, according to the Daily News.
BP is the company at the center of the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
