ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 2 (UPI) -- Environmental crews removed crude oil from a containment area that captured a spill from a pipeline in Alaska, state regulators said.
Operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said it closed the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline last week after oil spilled during a scheduled test at a pump station near Fairbanks.
The company said it lost power at a pump station near Fairbanks during the testing of a fire command system. As a result, relief valves opened and crude oil spilled into a secondary containment system.
The closure forced producers in the North Slope of Alaska to cut production for more than three days.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said roughly 5,000 barrels of oil spilled from the site with about 1,300 gallons recovered by late Tuesday, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
Crews are working to clean oil that seeped into the gravel at the containment site. Once cleanup crews have recovered the oil, soil will be removed from the site, the DEC said.
Alyeska said the pipeline returned to service Friday. The Trans-Alaska pipeline typically carries more than 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
