Amplify Blames Ship Owners for California Oil Spill in Suit
(Bloomberg) -- A Houston company facing criminal charges over a Southern California oil spill sued the owners of two container ships that it says dragged their anchors over an undersea pipeline nine months before it ruptured.
Amplify Energy Corp. said the spill would never have happened if weren't for the negligence of the ships and the failure of a California maritime agency to report the “anchor-dragging” incidents.
A federal grand jury indicted Amplify in December on a misdemeanor count of negligent discharge of oil. The company took more than three hours to plug the leak of an estimated 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) after a low-pressure alarm sounded in the early morning of Oct. 2, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Amplify claimed in a lawsuit filed Monday in Santa Ana, California, federal court that the ships, MSC Danit and the Cosco Beijing, anchored near the company's pipeline a few miles off the coast of Huntington Beach during a storm, rather than seeking safety in deep waters as other ships did.
The storm carried 63 mph winds and waves up to 17 feet (5.2 meters). “Driven by winds and waves, both the MSC Danit and COSCO Beijing dragged their anchors across the seafloor,” Amplify said in the lawsuit. “Both anchors hooked onto the concrete-encased pipeline and dragged a 4,000-foot section of the pipeline across the seafloor.”
The anchors “bent and bowed” the pipeline, displacing parts of it by more than 100 feet and breaking off the concrete casing, according to the suit.
The company said it learned about the damage when the leak was reported in early October.
The California Marine Exchange, which monitors coastal ship traffic, “knew or should have known” about the anchor dragging, but it failed to inform the company, Amplify said.
Amplify sued the shipowners, Mediterranean Shipping Co., and Dordellas Finance Corp., for damages to its business and reputation and to reimburse it for the costs of repairing the pipeline and “damages and costs” on account of the discharge.
The case is Gutierrez Jr. v. Amplify v. Mediterranean Shipping Co., 8:21-cv-01628, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (Santa Ana).
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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