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ExxonMobil applies to truck offshore oil and gas on Central Coast

July 11, 2018

ExxonMobil is seeking permission from Santa Barbara County to restart its offshore operations and to then truck the oil and gas it produces to the Phillips 66 Nipomo Mesa refinery, as well as along Highway 166 to a location in Kern County. [Cal Coast Times]

The multinational oil company’s operations off the Santa Barbara County coast have been suspended in the aftermath of a pipeline belonging to Plains All American rupturing in 2015 and causing about 100,000 gallons of oil to spill. Since 1993, Plains pipelines were the only means of transporting crude to markets, ExxonMobil stated in a project application to Santa Barbara County.

ExxonMobile says a pipeline remains its preferred long-term option for transporting crude. But as a temporary solution, the company is seeking permission to truck oil and gas from the Santa Ynez Unit facility located in Las Flores Canyon about 12 miles west of Goleta.

The trucks departing Las Flores Canyon would head northbound on Highway 101 to the Phillips 66 refinery on the Nipomo Mesa. They would also take Highway 166 east to the Pentland Terminal in Kern County. The second route includes a section of Highway 166 that crosses through the southern edge of San Luis Obispo County.

In its application, ExxonMobile is requesting permission for up to 70 truck trips per day from the Santa Ynez facility to the Mesa refinery or Pentland in Kern County. The company is seeking a permit that would end when the pipeline route becomes available again.

The offshore oil and gas come from three platforms off the Santa Barbara County coast. The oil and gas are then transferred via pipelines to onshore processing facilities, including the Santa Ynez Unit.

ExxonMobil argues that it has maintained leases for the Santa Ynez facility with the federal government. The leases have significant remaining reserves and will provide oil and gas, jobs and tax revenue for the region, ExxonMobil says.

Opponents continue to fiercely oppose the transfer of oil along the Central Coast both by pipeline and by truck.

In San Luis Obispo County, environmentalists recently succeeded in halting Phillips 66’s rail spur project that would have brought oil to the Nipomo Mesa refinery by train. Instead, Phillips 66 is continuing to deliver oil to the refinery by truck.

ExxonMobil’s project is scheduled to go before the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on Wednesday.


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Fellow Locals,

George falsely misleads with “Support the local economy by supporting local oil production.” Simply not true.


ExxonMobil is a multinational company with no ties to our community. It does not consider our well being.


George, this isn’t not a left/right/center issue. Get away from the paranoid rant.


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Folks,

George says,”Ignore the so-called environmentalists, they are out-of-touch.”


“The multinational oil company’s operations off the Santa Barbara County coast have been suspended in the aftermath of a pipeline belonging to Plains All American rupturing in 2015 and causing about 100,000 gallons of oil to spill,” reported Cal Coast.


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Folks,


Despite one poster having a hysterical attitude towards oil production, I think most reasonable people know that we fuel our great economy with fossil fuels, and that will not change in the foreseeable future.


Obviously we should all support a high environmental standard, and strict standards to protect our beautiful Central Coast, but only the fringe lunatics support ending domestic oil production.


The whacky, ultra-left liberal progressives want to stop nuclear power and stop fossil fuel usage, but they do not have any plausible plan to transition our society off petroleum and onto renewable fuels. Virtually every intelligent expert notes that renewable fuels only account for about 7% of our current usage, so only someone being totally disingenuous would cling to a false narrative like that.


Support the local economy by supporting local oil production.


Reject whacky progressive lies!


George


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Hysterical, out-of-touch, and whacky? I think you should read your own posts if you want a true picture of those “attributes”…


The biggest challenge to renewable energy is the oil and coal industries. they see it as a direct threat to the pollutant rich “product” they have made our country dependent on.


In 1974 Congress passed the Solar Energy Research Development and Demonstration Act, it was meant to stem the dependence on oil, to improve photovoltaic production levels, reduce production costs and stimulate private sector purchases. Billions were allocated and spent, but there was a fox in the hen house George! Big Oil! They, Big Oil, bought and controlled the research and development of America’s photovoltaic industry, thus controlling not only it’s use but the research and development needed to make it affordable, and they stymied it (and in turn we now watch China become the forerunner in solar).


The fringe group you speak of isn’t all that “fringe”, it’s almost dead even with those who support drilling in this country (44% against and 56% for) and that number has been rising steadily over the years.


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The roads are made with oil, the vehicles that use the roads are all about oil therefore transporting oil on these roads is nothing new. Pipelines can be safer if they are constructed correctly with monitored secondary containments. Railroads too are safer if third party inspection of infrastructure is required for proper maintenance. Looks like our highways covered with an array of qualifications for drivers is where the oil will flow for now.


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“Pipelines can be safer if they are constructed correctly with monitored secondary containments. ”


Not going to happen, too expensive. Facility’s sure it’s required, pipelines no.


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Folks,


Support the local economy by supporting local oil production.


We need the oil for our cars and we have very high standards for environmental compliance.


Reject the old hippy anti-oil stance, it is outdated and pathetic, even they drive cars.


Better to produce here, than in some third-world dictatorship.


Ignore the so-called environmentalists, they are out-of-touch.


George


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“Support the local economy by supporting local oil production.”


No, the oil company’s get so many give away tax breaks that every american pays more taxes, they profit. Tax and spend corporate giveaways, just like the tariffs screwing our economy.


Your ad hominem comments are out of date and out of touch, try rubbing a couple of facts together.


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Didn’t “local oil production” cause the debacle that was Avila? Didn’t “local oil production” cause the debacle that was the Plains All American Pipeline? Didn’t “local oil production” cause the debacle that was the Guadalupe Oil Field (one of the state’s worst environmental disasters of any kind)? I think SLO has had enough of ” local oil production”, don’t you?


“…we have very high standards for environmental compliance.”


Who’s out-of-touch? Pruitt began the rollback of your “…very high standards for environmental compliance” and his predecessor has said he will continue.


Get a clue, would ya?!!!


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