ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Two 12,600-gallon tanks were engulfed by a fire that destroyed other equipment at a Marathon Oil natural gas production pad northeast of Kenai.
The blaze Tuesday night marks the second problem at the same Beaver Creek location in three weeks.
With help from company workers, 20 firefighters from Nikiski, Kenai and Soldotna extinguished the blaze in several hours at Pad 1-A with thousands of gallons of water hauled to the site in tankers, Nikiski fire chief Daniel Gregory said.
``It was pretty straightforward,'' he said. ``Nobody was hurt, and it looked like Marathon captured the runoff.''
The burned tanks contained an estimated 380 barrels total of produced fluids, which is mostly water with some natural gas condensate left over from the production process, according to officials at the company's Houston headquarters, which sent specialists to the site.
Company crews were still working Thursday to stop gas from leaking from a natural gas well on the pad, according to Marathon spokeswoman Susan Richardson. The fire damaged the well housing, she said.
The danger that the gas could ignite kept state investigators from an immediate close examination of the spill or the company's equipment, according to Gary Folley, with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
``Marathon believes that the produced fluids were contained on the pad, but we'll do a detailed site assessment once we can get in there,'' Folley told the Anchorage Daily News.
The company doesn't know what caused the fire and has no damage estimate yet, Richardson said. Production from the Beaver Creek field has been halted, but the company expects it can supply gas needs from other Kenai areas.
``Right now our primary focus is to address this issue with the wellhead, to stop the leak and ensure the safety of all the people out there as well as the environment,'' Richardson said Thursday from Houston. ``Once that occurs we'll be able to focus on an investigation to determine exactly what happened.''
On Nov. 11, an estimated 10,500 gallons of produced fluids spilled from a storage tank after a check valve froze and a line failed. The company replaced the valve and has been removing contaminated soil from the site, according to the final state situation report.
Company personnel discovered the fire about 6 p.m. Tuesday.
``The call came in as 'a tank on fire,' `` Gregory said. ``While we were on the way, we heard it was two tanks.''
By the time the Nikiski squads reached the scene, the tanks had ruptured and the fire had spread beneath a truck mounted with a crane and a skid with instruments, and it was burning beneath the well housing, Gregory said.
