His position hasn't won him many friends among coastal property owners where he lives, but Bruce Allen still says that the best way to reduce pollution from oil seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel is to increase offshore production.
"It's now been shown that the effects of offshore oil production have been positive," the cofounder of Stop Oil Seeps California said Feb. 24 at the Heritage Foundation, where he presented the group's new television documentary, "A Crude Reality."
Allen said, "Forty years ago, when you'd walk along the beach in Santa Barbara, you'd get oil on the bottoms of your feet. That's less the case now."
Pressurized reserves make 70,000-80,000 bbl/year of oil seep into coastal waters off Santa Barbara, he said. By comparison, the US Minerals Management Service says that the amount of crude spilled from offshore production since 1970 has been less than 870 bbl, according to Allen.
Stuck in past
Politicians who repeatedly cite the 1969 Union Oil Co. spill in the channel as a reason for halting new production there disregard the industry's technical progress, Allen maintained. They also ignore a 1999 study that documented that production from the Holly offshore platform reduced natural seeps, he said.
"A 2005 seep event killed about twice as many birds as the 1969 spill," said Allen. "We estimate about 20,000 birds have died this way since 1969 compared to about 4,500 from all California offshore production."
More production from Santa Barbara coastal formations could make it less necessary for California refiners to import crude, he suggested. It also would help the state address its budget crisis and improve local economies, which was why the county's board of supervisors passed a resolution backing it 2 years ago.
2009 effort
It also was why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislative leaders tried to get state approval early last summer for Plains Exploration & Production Co. to drill directionally into formations beneath state waters from an existing platform on a nearby federal lease.
The proposal failed, but Allen said several participants want to revive it, this time from sites onshore. "With that approach, there would be no risk of an ocean spill although other environmental issues would need to be addressed," he said. But the idea has been endorsed by candidates running for governor and for California's senate and assembly, he added.
Richard L. Ranger, a senior upstream policy advisor at the American Petroleum Institute, said pollution from seeps was clearly visible off Santa Barbara when he worked in the area in the 1980s as an ARCO employee. "The difference between then and now is noticeable," he said.
Asked if he thought alternative energy has promise, Allen said that he does and that solar power is California's long-term solution. "Producing this oil instead of letting it seep into the ocean could help us get there," he said.
More Oil & Gas Journal Current Issue Articles
More Oil & Gas Journal Archives Issue Articles
View Oil and Gas Articles on PennEnergy.com
