Houston-based pipeline owner Amplify Energy Corp sued two major container ship operators and an organization that helps oversee marine traffic, saying they failed to prevent last fall’s underwater pipeline leak off the Southern California coast.
Namely, Amplify Energy Corp. claims that in January 2021 two ships dragged their anchors across the pipeline that ferried crude from offshore oil platforms to the coast. The ships are MSC Danit, operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, S.A,, and the COSCO Beijing, operated by Costamare Shipping Co., S.A.
“It is entirely foreseeable that allowing massive container ships to remain anchored near a pipeline might, in the event of a storm, result in damage to that pipeline and subsequent harm to the environment,” Amplify wrote in its filing, adding more than 20 other vessels left anchorages outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to ride out the storm’s high winds and waves in deeper water.
Amplify alleged that had the ships and Marine Exchange not been negligent, the spill wouldn’t have happened.
The filing adds the exchange, which logs shipping activity in the heavily traveled region, to ongoing litigation over the spill. Amplify already faces federal lawsuits over damages incurred by local fisherman, tour operators and others stemming from the October spill of about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean.
The complaint filed Monday seeks damages for lost revenue from suspended oil production since the spill, and that the Marine Exchange not allow ships to anchor near the pipeline when severe weather is likely.
