Intense rainstorms, brought on by the so-called El Niño climate anomaly, throughout February caused numerous oil and gas facility disruptions in California's Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, including the rare event of two gas lines erupting into a fiery blast within days of each other.
As the unusually heavy storms pounded California, oil companies bolstered their protective measures, such as All-American Pipeline Co. dumping more than 500 tons of rock along an eroding creek in early February to protect its crude oil line, which allows connections to Los Angeles and Texas refineries.
A few miles away on the Gaviota coast north of Santa Barbara, Molino Energy Co. was granted an emergency permit to stabilize a slope after a 100-ft mud slide nearly took out electrical and water sources supplying the extended drilling project.
In a ripple effect, the multiple onshore disruptions are exacerbating Torch Operating Co.'s request to expand drilling from Irene platform in the Santa Barbara Channel. A subsea pipeline from Irene broke on Sept. 28, spilling about 500 bbl of oil (OGJ, Oct. 6, 1997, p. 38).
Torch is planning to drill more wells from Irene and also has requested permits to handle unexpected higher levels of hydrogen sulfide from Irene's natural gas wells.
Pipeline ruptures
In Ventura County, mud slides triggered two gas pipeline ruptures resulting in blasts and fire from lines owned by SoCal Gas Co. The first rupture occurred Feb. 14 and the second Feb. 17 during heavy rains. Although the fireballs were dramatic, reaching as high as 300 ft in the air, no one was hurt, because of their rural location."This hasn't happened since the Northridge earthquake of 1994," said Larry Pickett, SoCal's Los Angeles-area representative, referring to two ruptures in 3 days.
An oil pipeline ruptured, spilling 200-500 bbl of oil on the opposite side of the ridge where the SoCal Gas line ruptured Feb. 14. A mud slide apparently broke the line, owned by Shell Oil Co., and spilled oil into a creek. Emergency crews erected a dam, preventing it from reaching the ocean.
It is unknown whether the gas explosion triggered the second slide.
Other damage
Texaco Inc. shut down a nearby oil pipeline, fearing unstable earth might break it, and helped clean up and stabilize nearby slopes.Just before the intense February storms, on Jan. 24, a pipeline managed by Torch leaked about 200 bbl of crude oil into agriculture irrigation ditches near Fillmore in Ventura County. Although Torch is in the process of replacing the 25-year-old pipeline, spokesman Roger Canady said, "We put more production through the old line, and it couldn't handle it."
In Santa Barbara County, a swollen Santa Maria River uncovered an apparently abandoned oil sump on Unocal Corp. property in Guadalupe Dunes oil field on Feb. 7, washing a small amount of oil into the ocean.
Before that, high tides and strong surf caused a shutdown and some damage to extraction wells being used to clean up a decades-old spill at Guadalupe Dunes of diluent, estimated to be 202,000-465,000 bbl. The rising water table and swelling surf caused release of the diluent into the ocean from an underground retaining wall that was exposed by erosion in late January.
A Torch pipeline failed on Feb. 7 when a valve broke, likely caused by soil erosion due to heavy rains. A spill of about 32 bbl of oil reached the Santa Ynez River in the Lompoc Valley.
The line feeds into Nuevo Energy Co. of Houston's HS&P facility, operated by Torch, but the plant was shut down days prior to the rupture because of bad weather.
Excess rain filled a crude-oil storage tank and run-off basin at Chevron Corp.'s Gaviota processing plant on Feb. 2, causing a small amount of oil to contaminate a nearby creek.
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