California Governor Jerry Brown declared an emergency in Santa Barbara County after a Plains All American Pipeline LP oil conduit leaked as much as 2,500 barrels of crude along the state’s southern coastline.
About 500 barrels of crude entered the ocean and a total of 145 barrels of oil were recovered as of 9 a.m. local time Wednesday, according to the Joint Information Center managing the cleanup. Governor Brown said the emergency declaration would help speed up the response. Phillips 66’s Santa Maria refinery, supplied by the Plains system, was said to be running at reduced rates after line was shut.
The release created an oil slick extending for 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) along the coast, Jennifer Williams, Los Angeles-area sector commander at the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a televised press conference. Nine vessels are at work, six attempting to corral the slick with booms and three skimming oil from the surface, she said.
“This emergency proclamation cuts red tape and helps the state quickly mobilize all available resources,” Brown said in a statement. “We will do everything necessary to protect California’s coastline.”
The 24-inch pipeline, called Line 901, can carry 150,000 barrels of crude a day, the center said. Typically, it carries 28,800 barrels a day from Las Flores to Gaviota, where it links to other pipelines.
The line was shut and a culvert where the oil flowed into the ocean was blocked to prevent any more crude entering the water, Plains spokesman Brad Leone said in an e-mail late Tuesday. The company has 130 cleanup workers on site with more en route, he said.
1969 Blowout
Plains shares fell 1.5 percent to $48.86 in New York Wednesday.
The release is believed to be the largest oil spill into Santa Barbara waters since 1969, Lt. John McCormick, Coast Guard public affairs officer, said by phone Wednesday. In that year, an oil platform blowout spilled 200,000 gallons of crude into the Pacific, marring 35 miles of Santa Barbara coastline.
The Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said it’s investigating.
The line links to a network that supplies the 44,500 barrel a day Phillips 66 Santa Maria refinery, Santa Barbara County said on its website. The plant, which upgrades crude into a feedstock for further processing into fuels at a facility in Rodeo, California, has cut its operating rates by at least half, a person familiar with the refinery said.
The refinery continues to operate and it’s too early to know how the plant will be affected, Dennis Nuss, a Phillips 66 spokesman, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
The spill comes a year after a Plains pipeline that supplies some of the state’s largest refineries leaked 21,000 gallons of oil in Los Angeles, damaging a strip club and forcing some customers to leave their cars behind.
Topics California Energy Oil Gas
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