FPIC consultant bares extent of pipeline leak

MANILA, Philippines - The team of experts and engineers conducting an environmental assessment of the petroleum leak in the pipeline of First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) in Makati bared yesterday the extent and the size of the plume that came out of the affected area of the pipeline.

The extent of the leak was determined after CH2M HILL, the US-based engineering and construction services company tasked to do remediation, engineering works and rehabilitation of the affected areas in Barangay Bangkal in Makati City, bore several monitoring and catchment wells.

The extent of the plume that seeped underground covers at least 9,000 square meters that include only half of the portion of the service road from Bonifacio St . to P. Garcia St.

Aside from the West Tower building, FPIC said the plume affects only a handful of residential establishments in Bangkal.

The identification of the extent of the plume came only seven days after CH2M HILL started to bore catchment wells in the area.

Edmund Piquero, CH2M HILL project manager, said they are way ahead of schedule since they have accelerated the remediation process.

CH2M HILL had earlier said they will start the recovery process by the early part of January 2011. “We have actually accelerated remediation because we have a chance to pump out fuel products. Everything is going at a much faster rate,” Piquero said.

FPIC OIC Anthony Mabasa said “the remediation works or clean up of the Bangkal area is being accelerated after CH2M HILL has more or less determined the plume or extent of the area contaminated or with the highest level of concentration.”

“It is around 9,000 square meters, 8,000 grams estimated volume of unrecovered oil products. However, the good news is, it is confined to the area along Osmena Highway going to the West Tower and a portion of the service road,” he said.

Piquero, on the other hand, added that they have already fasttracked the siphoning process which was supposed to be conducted in January next year.

“We will be drilling six product recovery wells. We have started drilling today (Dec. 9) and will most likely siphon the oil products by Saturday (Dec. 11),” he said.

Piquero said they have sent the samples abroad for analysis. “So far, soil and water samples recovered from the monitoring wells have been sent to the laboratory in Malaysia for further analysis,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eastern Petroleum Corp. (EPC) said it has stepped up its supply of diesel, unleaded and premium gasoline with the arrival of diesel equivalent to 37 million liters and two ships of gasoline from Singapore .

EPC chairman Fernando Martinez said the combined cargo of more than 50 million liters are for distribution to EPC’s network of gasoline stations and to supply other oil retailers and distributors experiencing tight supply.

Earlier, the Department of Energy called upon other petroleum players in the industry to fill up the supply gap created by the closure of the Batangas-Pandacan oil pipeline.

Martinez said the deregulation of the downstream oil industry saved the country from an oil supply crisis that could have resulted from the closure of the pipeline carrying no less than 65 percent of Luzon’s supply.

He said the entry of new independent players like EPC, with a combined retail network of 800 outlets to date, provided alternatives for motorists and industrial commercial customers particularly in transport and power industries.

Martinez said EPC will continue to import huge quantities enough to help fill up the gap to avoid any supply disruption in Luzon.