Coast Guard investigators boarded a massive cargo ship as they probe what caused the rupture of an offshore oil pipeline that sent crude washing up on Southern California beaches.
The visit to the Rotterdam Express container ship came as investigators try to determine whether an anchor snagged, dragged and bent the pipeline owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that operates three offshore oil platforms south of Los Angeles.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Rotterdam Express appeared to make a series of unusual movements while anchored in the closest spot to where the break in the pipeline happened, according to data collected by a marine navigation service. AP reviewed more than two weeks of data from MarineTraffic, which tracks radio signals from transponders that broadcast the locations of ships and large boats every few minutes.
But in an email Thursday, MarineTraffic spokesperson Fotini Tseroni said the movements indicated for the Rotterdam Express apparently were erroneous and may have resulted from errors involving the ship’s GPS system. The company said it was removing the jumps in position to show the ship stayed within its anchorage.
