Venoco Oil Operations

By Margaret Connell

Venoco at Ellwood is a major industrial operation in a rural/suburban area

Venoco's oil operations at Ellwood include Platform Holly offshore, the Ellwood Onshore (EOF) processing facility, a pipeline that carries oil from the EOF to the Ellwood Marine Terminal (EMT) on the UCSB Mesa, and a pipeline and moorings for the oil barge Jovalon.

Venoco has three main applications before the State Lands Commission.

The Ellwood Marine Terminal (EMT) loads oil by pipeline about every 10 days onto the single hulled Jovalon off Coal Oil Point, which is then towed on a 1,000 ft rope to either San Francisco or Long Beach. People living in the area say that they smell odors during the loading of the barge. This is an accident waiting to happen and must cease as soon as possible. Venoco has an application with the State Lands Commission for a renewal of the lease for the offshore pipeline to the barge. The preferred solution would be for Venoco to build an onshore pipeline to the consolidated facility in Los Flores Canyon. The current price of oil should make this economically feasible.

Venoco's full field development project proposes to slant drill 40 new wells from Platform Holly, extending the lease boundary to the east. The oil would be shipped by pipeline to the Ellwood Onshore Facility (EOF) for processing and then by onshore pipeline to the Los Flores Canyon consolidated facility. Venoco does not want to build the pipeline if they are not permitted to slant drill though they would have to shut down the EMT in a few years anyway when the lease for the site with UCSB runs out in 2016. This project would require major upgrades of the EOF, beyond what is permitted for this non-conforming use on a recreational zoned site. The Draft Environmental Impact Report states that the preferred alternative would be an offshore pipeline to come onshore below Los Flores Canyon, taking the oil for processing to the consolidated facility. This would allow the EMT and EOF to be decommissioned and barging to cease. The site could then be restored for recreation. While this sounds an attractive solution, the project will almost certainly extend the life of Platform Holly and oil operations in the area, with attendant risks of spills and toxic gas emissions.

Lastly, Venoco is seeking to re-commission Piers 421 and 422, the last remaining shoreline platforms in the state. This is a marginal source of oil, which should be shut down, with only what pumping is necessary for safe decommissioning.

My overall goal is to remove industrial oil operations from the Ellwood area.