ExxonMobil halts drilling weeks after California pipeline spill

ExxonMobil is halting drilling at three offshore platforms on the Santa Barbara Coast where a pipeline that spilled up to 101,000 gallons of crude oil had been shut, the company said Tuesday.

The oil company temporarily ceased operations last week after Santa Barbara County rejected its emergency application to truck oil to refineries, spokesman Richard Keil said.

A Santa Barbara County official said the company's problem did not constitute an emergency and it could go through the normal procedure to get a permit to truck oil.

ExxonMobil had significantly cut production from the three rigs after the Plains All American Pipeline spilled crude on the coast May 19 and was shut down. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County due to the effects of the spill.

Federal regulators investigating the cause of the spill have revealed the 2-foot-wide pipe was severely corroded where it ruptured. Local, state and federal prosecutors are also investigating.

ExxonMobil had cut daily production on the Hondo, Harmony and Heritage rigs from 30,000 barrels to 10,000 barrels and was storing it at the company's plant in Las Flores Canyon 15 miles west of Santa Barbara.

The plant separates water and natural gas from crude and another company processes the natural gas.

ExxonMobil's announcement came a day after tests confirmed that tar from the Santa Barbara spill washed up at least as far away as Los Angeles County.

The findings confirmed what was suspected by many after globs of oil began swamping Southern California beaches in the weeks after the spill.

Goo that washed up on beaches east and south of Santa Barbara was sent to labs for “fingerprint” analysis to determine if it came from the Plains All American Pipeline spill or from oil that seeps naturally from the seabed.

Tar balls are routinely found on beaches in the area, but the quantity and size forced officials to shut down popular surf and swim posts while they were cleaned up about 100 miles from where the spill entered the ocean at Refugio State Beach.

Three samples taken in the Manhattan Beach area on May 27 were traced to the spill. 

While testing continues on samples found about 155 miles down the coast from the Santa Barbara spill, it's too early to declare that the spill was responsible for most of the oil and tar that appeared on local beaches, said Alexia Retallack of California's Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Four of the samples that Plains had analyzed by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Barbara were consistent with natural seeps, the company said.

The Associated Press