No leaks have been found so far on the 117-kilometer-long Batangas-to-Manila white oil pipeline owned by the Lopez-led First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) following the conduct of pressure tests last week.
Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr. told reporters Monday that during a 48-hour-long monitoring period with the start of the pressure-controlled leak test last Wednesday, pressure in the pipeline was found to be stable.
“[In an] ocular inspection of monitoring wells located in various places along the pipeline, we have not seen any leaks,” he said.
According to Layug, the Department of Energy (DoE) will continue to monitor the pipeline until noon Tuesday and then afterward, it will submit its recommendations to the Supreme Court (SC).
Layug explained that they wanted to monitor the pipeline for three days to ensure that the results would be more “reliable.”
The leak test is aimed at determining the structural integrity of the pipeline as ordered by the high tribunal and recommended by the energy department’s pipeline integrity expert, Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), an international technical consultant in the area of pipeline operations and engineering.
The DoE is supervising the leak test with SGS expert from New Zealand Emiel Verveer as an independent observer, and representatives from the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences, the UP Institute of Civil Engineering, FPIC and West Tower residents.
The pipeline was shut down in October last year after it was found out to be the source of the oil that had been leaking into the basement of West Tower Condominium in Barangay (village) Bangkal, Makati City, since July.
The discovery prompted the city government to order the evacuation of all residents in the 22-story building and the declaration of the surrounding areas as a “danger zone” due to the possibility of an explosion.
The leak was later traced to five rice grain-sized holes in a portion of the pipeline located just meters away from the condominium.
In November 2010, the High Court issued a “writ of kalikasan” that ordered FPIC to clean up the areas affected by the oil spill.
The 117-kilometer-long pipeline transports more than 50 percent of the petroleum products bound for Pandacan, Manila, considered the largest depot in the country.
FPIC is facing a P2-billion suit filed by West Tower residents for violation of the Philippine Clean Water Act, Philippine Clean Air Act and Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act.