Amplify Energy shares crashed as much as 35% premarket Monday after its subsidiary, Beta Offshore notified the US Coast Guard on Oct. 2 of an oil leak coming from one of its underwater pipelines that have caused a possible ‘ecological disaster’ for Southern California beaches, according to Bloomberg.
A company statement said operations at the Beta Field had been shut down as a precautionary measure, and an Oil Spill Prevention and Response Plan has been initiated as city authorities for Huntington Beach, which is a beach town within Orange County, estimates 126,000 gallons of oil leaked from a broken underwater pipeline, covering beaches and wetlands with crude.
Breaking: First view of major oil Spill off of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Booms deployed. Beaches closed @Pacific_Airshow cancelled #oilspill #orangecounty @latimes @latimesphotos pic.twitter.com/RkN09YTBjS
— Allen J. Schaben (@alschaben) October 3, 2021
Over the weekend, Huntington Beach officials warned residents to stay away from beaches as oil washed ashore and blackened the sand. There’s also been reports of oil-covered birds and marine wildlife washing ashore. Some described the spill as a potential ecological disaster.
The news of the oil spill has been compounding trouble for one billionaire, Marc Lasry, who owns a 6.7% stake in the company. The spill comes just a few weeks after he took on the role of chairman at Ozy Media, which just shut down after a report in NYT about its dubious business practices.
The oil spill couldn’t have come at the worst time for the fossil fuel industry, as a green push has ignited a movement to decarbonize power grids.
