(Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday inspected a vessel in Oakland focusing on the possibility that a ship’s anchor struck a pipeline, causing an oil spill in California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Citing unidentified sources that it said were familiar with the investigation, the paper said the probe into whether an anchor ruptured the pipeline was in its early stages. The report didn’t say which ship officials had inspected.
The U.S. Coast Guard deferred questions to PHMSA, the federal agency in charge of the investigation. A PHMSA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Amplify Energy, which owns the pipeline and connected rigs, said on Tuesday that oil appeared to have leaked through a 13-inch (33-cm) gash in the pipe, which was “pulled like a bowstring” about 105 feet from where it should have been.
(Reporting by Swati Verma and Nichola Groom; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
