HOUSTON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell was working Tuesday to contain an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and repair its leaking crude oil pipeline offshore Louisiana, company officials and the Coast Guard said.
Shell discovered on Saturday that the 173,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) capacity Eugene Island pipeline it operates spilled 1,400 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and shut down the line. The pipeline had recently been flowing at 100,000 bpd, a Shell spokesman said.
A "small amount" is still leaking as the pipeline drains, he added.
Two skimmer ships were working Tuesday to clean up oil from the spill, which occurred around 60 miles southwest of Houma, Louisiana.
A Coast Guard officer said skimming efforts have so far collected around 1,500 gallons of oil and water mixture. Some oil has been dispersed by fly-over efforts, he said.
"It's improbable that any oil will reach the shore," the Coast Guard official said.
It wasn't immediately clear when Shell could begin repairs on the 20-inch diameter crude pipeline or restart it.
Divers are headed to the scene and planners studied repair options, Shell said. Shell will study alternative routes for the crude as well as repairs, a spokesman said.
(Reporting by Bruce Nichols and Joshua Schneyer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
