California oil spill mapping: aging pipes line the coast

Since a pipeline failure spilled at least 126,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, threatening a fragile coastal ecosystem and forcing the closure of some of Southern California’s most popular beaches, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials scanned satellite imagery to track the spread of the oil.

A series of images captures the extent of the spill, showing how the tides brought the slick closer to the coast. Authorities have said the spill is the largest off California since 2015, when Refugio State Beach, near Santa Barbara, was polluted with oil from a ruptured pipeline.

The latest spill, believed to be from a decades-old pipeline that connected three platforms to a pumping station in Long Beach, has drawn attention to California’s aging offshore oil and gas infrastructure. Some of the oldest platforms still in place were installed in the late 1960s. The episode also raised questions about the speed of response: local residents had started complaining about the smell of oil before. that state authorities do not sound the alarm.

California has not allowed offshore drilling for decades, and the federal government has long suspended sales of offshore leases off the Pacific coast. But the platforms close to the recent leak, installed in the early 1980s by a consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell, are still operated by struggling Houston-based energy company Amplify.

“When you talk about rigs that have been in place for 30 or 40 years, there is going to be wear and tear,” said John B. Smith, an independent consultant who previously managed offshore oil and gas development along. the Pacific Coast to the Office of Ocean Energy Management. “Over time, the risk of a spill increases.

Martyn Willsher, chief executive of Amplify, said on Monday that the company believed it had identified the location of the pipeline rupture. He also pointed to another possible cause of the leak: a ship’s anchor may have struck the pipeline.

Satellite images from the day before the first sighting of the leak show a large number of ships near the Amplify pipeline. Problems in the global supply chain, triggered by an increase in consumer spending as pandemic restrictions begin to ease, have meant a record number of freighters wait off the coast of California.

While the cause of the leak remains uncertain, the damage could have significant consequences for the future of the offshore oil and gas industry off California, once a major oil-producing state. The spill sparked new calls for a permanent shutdown of offshore oil production and the decommissioning of the 200-mile pipeline that service 23 offshore platforms that dot the Pacific coast, all of which are decades old.

Eleven of these platforms are no longer producing oil or gas, while five of these inactive platforms are in the early stages of decommissioning. The fate of the other six inactive rigs remains uncertain as former owners argue over who is responsible for the millions of dollars it will take to decommission them.

Mr Smith, the former head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, says many of the remaining rigs will likely be decommissioned by the middle of the next decade. California, which has faced worsening drought and wildfires in recent years, has set some of the country’s most aggressive climate targets, with legislation requiring the state to draw 60% of all its electricity. renewable sources by 2030, and 100% renewable by 2045.

The Biden administration is currently reviewing the decommissioning practices of these towering platforms, a colossal task: the largest platform is the size of the Empire State Building. Some scientific studies have shown that it may be less ecologically damaging to leave the base of platforms on the ocean floor, where nature can take over, turning the structures into artificial reefs.

California, with only a fraction of the offshore oil and gas infrastructure like the Gulf of Mexico, could be a harbinger of things to come. In the Gulf, the leaks frequently come from a tangle of more than 8,600 miles of pipelines, many of which are abandoned, and more than 1,800 platforms. NOAA spotted dozens of spills after Hurricane Ida.

Miyoko Sakashita, director of the oceans program at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental law group, called the California spill “devastating to southern California wildlife.” And she said without enhanced oversight, aging structures would continue to pose serious risks. “These rigs were built 40 years ago, and they’ve been exposed to the wind and harsh conditions at sea – they’re time bombs waiting to explode, for an oil spill like this to explode. this happens. ”