The culprit is none other than British oil and gas company BP

May 1, 2014 20:47 GMT  ·  By

One would think that, in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, when 200 million gallons (750 million liters) of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, British multinational oil and gas company BP would do its best to avoid being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons once again.

As is turns out, bad publicity has a way of sticking to this multinational company much like oil does to the birds and other animals it chances to come by whenever it spills from a pipeline or the like.

Thus, media reports tell us that, this past Wednesday, state officials in the state of Alaska confirmed that a yet-to-be-determined amount of oil mist had been sprayed over some 27 acres of tundra in this part of the world, and that a well owned by none other than BP is to blame for this incident. Think Progress informs that this mist was released into the environment by a pipe connected to a BP-owned well pad, and that it comprised water, natural gas, and a pinch of crude oil. Just for the record, it must be said that the area on which the mist was sprayed is the equivalent of about 20 football fields.

Information shared with the public says that the oil and gas giant first figured out that something was off on Monday, while workers were busy carrying out routine investigations. It took BP about two hours to fix the pipe, but, by then, winds had already carried the natural gas, crude oil, and water mixture over considerable distances.

“The incident started at 2:30 p.m. on April 28, 2014, when natural gas, crude oil and produced water began escaping from the line. The line was isolated and depressurized at 4:30 p.m., at which point the release stopped,” the Division of Spill Prevention and Response of the state of Alaska writes on its website.

For the time being, neither British multinational oil and gas company BP nor state officials in Alaska have any idea why it was that the pipe ended up releasing the oily mist into its surroundings, and then just a tad further. An investigation is ongoing, and one can only hope that more information will soon become available.

Despite the fact that BP is clueless about how much natural gas, crude oil, and water mixture seeped from this pipe in Alaska at the beginning of this week, the company reassures that there is no evidence to indicate that wildlife in the region has been heavily affected by the incident. As far as the long-term effects of this spill are concerned, the company says that it is yet too soon to make any comments.