Hundreds of gallons of oil oozed out of a ruptured Esso pipeline yesterday forming two thick, black pools either side of the bridge between Coney Island and Seabreeze Oval.

But Bermuda escaped major marine pollution, Environment Ministry officials ascertained.

About 100 yards of Coney Island shoreline, wharf lice, algae and some crustaceans were the only known victims, Government conservation officer Dr.

David Wingate said from the scene. This was thanks to a sudden wind shift which moved an eight-mile-long oil slick stemming from the area out to sea rather than towards the Somerset shoreline.

The slick broke up and evaporated without the use of any toxic chemical dispersants. "We got away very easily,'' Esso Bermuda general manager Mr.

Keith Hollis said.

A construction crew from D&J was last night still searching for the pipeline rupture having dug up most of Coney Island bridge to expose the concrete-encased steel conduit which runs oil from Esso to Belco.

It was not the first time Esso has battled an oil spill in the area.

Ten years ago the same stretch of pipeline suffered a pinhole burst due to sea corrosion and Esso reacted by beefing up the system.

"We will have to look at this area again and see if there is anything more we can do above and beyond what has been done,'' Mr. Hollis said, conceding Esso may have to seek outside expertise.

The wind direction had initially caused clean-up officials to worry that Dockyard and Somerset could be under pollution threat.

Most of the oil was contained early on as clean-up crews battled against a looming 2 p.m. tide change which probably would have washed any uncontained oil into Grotto Bay and beyond. But some oil escaped going offshore with the tide and forming a 30-foot-wide slick.

Anxious Esso operations manager Mr. Alan Doughty ordered more booms to the area and plans were made to zap the slick with toxic dispersants. A Government tug was called in to assist.

However, when the wind went around to the south, clean-up officials breathed a sigh of relief.

The slick broke up and evaporated as it was carried out to sea.

It was about two miles short of reaching Dockyard. Black oil globules on the first part of the slick, which stretched from Coney Island to Crawl Point where it thinned into a sheen reaching the Cable and Wireless dish, were all mopped up.

"None came onto the shoreline -- it's clean,'' Mr. Hollis said.

By 5 p.m., the Marine Pollution Contingency Committee had contained the oil in the bays either side of the bridge with several 100 to 200-foot-long booms.

And they had mopped up most of congealed oil in the 20 to 30-foot-wide soupy pools.

"Everything is completely under control now,'' Mr. Hollis said.

Mr. Doughty added, "We are buttoning down for the night. No land is threatened.'' He added D&J would dig until the leak was found. Generators were being brought down so the construction and clean-up crews could work through the night.

It is believed up to 15 55-gallon barrels of oil may have leaked out.

A boat full of Fisheries Division employees on their way to work spotted the oil spill and alerted Esso around 8.30 a.m.

Oil oozes from broken pipeline From Page 1 The cause of the spill was a mystery at first, but clean-up officials soon found the oil had been seeping out of the Grotto Bay side of the bridge.

Running along that bridge, encased in thick concrete, are pipelines which transport generator oil from Esso to Belco.

Esso ordered the western side of the bridge dug up first but after several hours of digging it soon became apparent the leak was not on that side. D&J was then instructed to dig up the other side of the valve manhole near the spill.

That valve and one further along near Bailey's Bay Cricket Club had been immediately shut off.

"Damage was very minimal,'' said permanent secretary for the Environment Dr.

James Burnett-Herkes, who went up in the Smatt helicopter along with Mr.

Hollis and Marine and Ports chief Mr. Ron Ross to view the slick.

"The oil slick dispersed away off North Shore over deep water or reef. But the oil was on the surface so the impact on the coral reefs was immeasurable.

It was a light oil.'' Line fishermen who fish off Coney Island and other North Shore spots "won't even notice it'', he said. "Fortunately the current took it away. Had the tide been the other way it could have been a different story.'' He noted the area where the pipeline lay at sea level was prone to a "fair amount of salt spray and corrosion.'' The marine pollution control team consisted of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks, Marine and Ports, Marine Police, Esso and Shell personnel. Esso brought in private contractors where needed.

Mr. Burnett-Herkes said the response to the oil spill was certainly quicker and more effective than it had been to the similar spill 10 years ago due to the formation of the pollution control team and the cooperation of both Esso and Shell oil companies.

The spill clean-up is expected to cost Esso thousands of dollars. Mr. Hollis was in touch yesterday with Esso xxon headquarters in Coral Gables, Florida, to update them on the situation.