Digging for Facts in the Palisades Oil Dispute

The discovery of the Pacific Palisades oil field was one of many finds in the last 96 years that have made the Los Angeles Basin a great urban oil storehouse, with valuable reservoirs from East Los Angeles to beyond the beach in Santa Monica Bay.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has struggled unsuccessfully to develop the Palisades field since its geologists found oil-bearing sand in 1966 at 9,271 feet beneath Elder Street and Entrada Drive in the expensive residential neighborhood.

The company’s efforts to begin production have been made difficult by the proximity of its proposed drilling site to Will Rogers State Beach, the intense opposition of many Palisades homeowners and anti-drilling environmentalists throughout the region, and the fear of oil drilling foes that the project will open the way to drilling into a possible Santa Monica Bay tidelands field near the Occidental site.

Other facets of the dispute are the fact that the drilling would be adjacent to the site of a huge 1958 landslide, the need for Occidental to lay a pipeline under the Palisades and other expensive Westside neighborhoods, and the fear that the drilling will bring additional traffic, noise, air pollution and odors to the area.

Eighteen boxes of records in the Los Angeles Planning Department contain the charges of oil drilling foes, and the replies of Occidental. Now the dispute is being aired in simpler--and even simplistic--form in a Nov. 8 election campaign.

Facing the voters are two ballot measures. Proposition O would stop Occidental’s project. Proposition P would strongly and specifically affirm the project, which has already been approved by Mayor Tom Bradley, the Los Angeles City Council and the California Coastal Commission.

Complex questions are involved in the election, and they are likely to be obscured by fierce rhetoric.

To find answers, The Times studied the records of the long dispute and interviewed geologists and other experts, including officials of the state Division of Oil and Gas, the agency that oversees oil drilling in California.

EVALUATING THE PALISADES FIELD

“No geologic, geophysical, geochemical or occult method yet devised actually pinpoints an oil reservoir of a particular size in a particular place,” wrote retired Robert O. Anderson, former chairman of Atlantic Richfield Co., in his book, “Fundamentals of the Petroleum Industry.” But, Anderson said, “exploration techniques have improved to a point where the chances of finding oil are much better than they used to be.”

Geologically, the chances of major production in the Palisades are considered as good as they can get. The discovery of the field followed several years of exploration by the oil industry of oil-bearing geologic structures called anticlines, running from downtown Los Angeles westward through Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. Anticlines are V-shaped arches forced upward by pressure from inside the earth. On the surface of the earth, these anticlines often result in hills or ridges. Underground, they form a roof that traps oil. Anderson said that at least 80% of the world’s oil and gas has been discovered in anticlines.

Millions of Barrels

More than 375 million barrels of oil have been produced from about 1,000 wells in the Los Angeles anticlines in the last 25 years. After discovering a productive field on the grounds of the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles in 1965, Occidental geologists, using known geologic information and seismic soundings--pounding the surface and listening to sound waves come back--centered their attention on the Palisades area. When oil-bearing sand was found in the exploratory drilling, Occidental crews traveled the Palisades in a truck with a “thumper,” pounding the pavement in seismic explorations that helped determine the potential size of the field, according to a geologist familiar with the project.

Geologists said that Occidental will not know precisely how much oil is in the field until it begins drilling. But from its exploratory drill, and from its seismic work, Occidental said it believes the layer of oil-bearing sand averages a thickness of 500 feet and extends over 600 acres. If that is true, the company said, the field contains a minimum of 25 million barrels of oil and a maximum of 60 million. At the current price of oil, the maximum find would bring in more than $900 million and industry experts say they believe oil prices will rise during the projected 20-year life of the Palisades field. By comparison, Occidental’s 1987 revenues totaled $17.1 billion.

SEEKING OIL OFFSHORE

There may be even more oil in the vicinity of Occidental’s Palisades drill site, not beneath it, but a short distance out in Santa Monica Bay. In 1967, a geologist, Theodore Bear, did a study of potential offshore oil discoveries for the City of Santa Monica. In a report presented to the City Council, Bear said, “There is a great probability of oil underlying the tidelands . . . the offshore area may contain more than 50 million barrels.”

Bear said he had identified underground rock layers, known as schists, running from Venice into Santa Monica Bay. He said he used geologic studies and seismic testing to identify the formation, which he said probably contains oil. The state Division of Oil and Gas also said such a formation exists.

The northern limit of the underwater schist extends to an area offshore from the Occidental drilling site, Bear theorized. At that point, Mobil Oil had drilled two test bores. The results have not been made public.

Caused a Controversy

The report immediately produced controversy in Westside oil politics. Santa Monica anti-oil forces, then in the midst of a successful campaign to stop city plans for oil drilling, cited the report as evidence that the city wanted to promote drilling in the bay.

Afterward, the report was forgotten until it was revived by E. D. Michel, a geologist working for No Oil Inc., the leading opponent of the Palisades project. Michel has always doubted the existence of the Palisades field and charged that Occidental’s real interest was to construct a shore area drilling site that would give it access to the offshore field. “There is no meaningful evidence of an oil reservoir in the Palisades,” he wrote in 1982. “The drill sites Occidental desires might be suitable to reach offshore traps where there may be oil.”

In a recent interview, Bear expanded on his 1967 report. He is a well-known geologist who helped Occidental identify its Palisades field and made other important studies for the Occidental project.

He said that Occidental did not intend, in planning development of the Palisades field, to go offshore. “I know, being on the inside,” he said.

In a Good Position

But Bear said that if the field was ever developed, Occidental would be in a strong position to benefit. He said the field is too shallow--5,000 feet deep--for slant drilling from the shoreline. But he said it could be easily reached from wells in the bay.

Bear acknowledged that political opposition makes such drilling impossible today. But he said that “technology for offshore platform drilling is improving so much” that in a few years, wells could be drilled, the platforms removed in a few months and oil extracted from wells on the floor of the bay and invisible from the surface. He said the oil could be “taken by pipes onshore” to the planned Occidental Palisades drill site and then shipped by pipelines to refineries. “They could use the facilities they have onshore and no one would know they had an oil field out there,” he said.

Inland Project Only

Occidental said it is not interested in offshore oil. “The project we are supporting is the inland project which drills away from the bay,” said Occidental spokesman Frank Ashley. “It is the only one we ask for.” He noted that Los Angeles law forbids Occidental from drilling into the bay and that state Lands Commission permission would be needed to develop an offshore field.

But Occidental foes have said that they fear the city could one day give Occidental permission to drill into the bay, as could the Lands Commission.

In addition, there is strong evidence of substantial oil deposits farther out in Santa Monica Bay, in the area under the jurisdiction of the federal government. In words reflecting the view of many Occidental opponents, former Los Angeles City Planning Commission President Daniel P. Garcia said that despite Occidental’s insistence that it is not interested in bay drilling, city approval of its proposal is a “a signal, a message, if you will, that the local jurisdictions are caving in” in their opposition to offshore drilling. “It is not Occidental’s fault,” he said. “It is not a question of fault at all.”

THE PALISADES DRILLING SITE

If Occidental confirms its oil find in the Palisades, it will drill up to 60 oil and gas wells on two acres located under the Palisades bluffs across seven lanes of Pacific Coast Highway from Will Rogers State Beach. Drilling will slant from the drilling site into the projected oil reservoir, about 10,000 feet under the Palisades residential neighborhood. Like spokes on a wheel, drills will reach throughout a broad area.

A 155-foot-tall oil derrick, about as high as a 15-story building, will be used for the drilling. It will be mounted on a track so it can be moved over the many wells. The derrick and other necessary structures will be disguised to give what Occidental calls a California mission-style appearance. Unlike the usual California mission tower, however, this one will be mobile. It will be mounted on a track so it can be moved over the many wells grouped at the site.

According to a timetable in a city environmental impact report, first a 136-foot-high temporary derrick will go up for 65 days. Drilling of two exploration wells will take 90 days. Another 90 days will be required to evaluate the results of the exploration wells.

If the field is confirmed by the exploration, it will take 300 days to build the permanent derrick and other permanent facilities. Thirty days will be required for construction of a pipeline from the drilling site through the Palisades to an existing pipeline, which would take the oil to a refinery. Six years will be required for the drilling of the 60 production wells. Production will last for 23 years. At some point during that period--no one can say exactly when--the derrick may be removed and be replaced by less conspicuous equipment.

WORRYING ABOUT LANDSLIDES

In March, 1958, during one of the rainiest periods in state history, a huge landslide occurred next to what is now the proposed Occidental drilling site. About 780,000 cubic yards of earth fell across Pacific Coast Highway in the Via de las Olas slide, reaching the surf and piling more than 100 feet of slide debris on the roadway. After some cleanup, Pacific Coast Highway was routed around the slide. The Occidental site is on the former highway right of way, nestling against a huge pile of slide debris.

Differences over whether that drilling would touch off another Via de las Olas slide has been a major theme in the long controversy. Occidental says drilling will have no effect; drilling foes maintain it would heighten the threat of further slides.

A city environmental impact report cited a study which said that there is danger of the slide moving if the water table in the area rises to about 65 feet below the surface. Strong ground shaking, such as in an earthquake, could cause slide instability if the water level rose to within 80 feet of the surface. Drilling opponents say that drilling activity would similarly increase instability.

Drainage System

To meet these fears, Occidental has agreed to install a system of drains in the slide area. These would be 2 1/2-inch tubes, called “hydraugers,” to carry water out of the landslide mass. Two engineering firms have assured Occidental and city officials that the hydrauger system would be effective in draining the landslide. A Los Angeles city geologist, Joseph Cobarrubias, said he likes the system because it is inexpensive and can easily be expanded in times of exceptionally heavy rainfall.

But in a strong dissent, former Planning Commission President Garcia, in voting against the Occidental drilling project, said he fears that heavy rains pounding on the surface of the slide, and also raising the underground water level, would prove too great for the hydrauger system to handle. “One of the difficulties, of course, is that it’s rather difficult to predict what God will do to us in terms of annual rainfall this year or next year,” he said. “I think any dispassionate or analytical view of annual rainfalls in the last 50 years indicates a fairly high degree of unpredictability. . . .”

JUDGING EARTHQUAKE DANGERS

The drilling site and the projected Palisades oil field is in an area containing faults. This is not unusual. Fault movement often creates oil fields. Occidental’s 1966 Palisades exploratory drill cut through the Malibu-Santa Monica Fault. The north branch of that fault may be near the drilling site. The Portrero Canyon Fault is nearby.

Occidental foes have expressed fear of earthquakes from the Malibu-Santa Monica Fault, saying it has been active in this decade. Although some geologists disagree, opponents of Palisades drilling contend that the removal of subterranean oil makes the likelihood of earthquakes greater. Michel, the No Oil Inc. geologist, said he believes “strain energy is stored along” the Malibu-Santa Monica Fault. “The available evidence indicates that significant seismic events might be associated with oil field operations,” he said.

Citing reports from the State Division of Mines and Geology, Occidental has replied that the fault is not active. The city environmental impact report, prepared by Occidental, said “seismic activity (was) registered at the site in 1981. This activity, however, originated in the area of Santa Cruz Island, approximately 50 miles southwest of the project site.”

Occidental said it has designed its project to withstand a 6.5 magnitude quake on the Malibu-Santa Monica Fault and will equip it with shut-off devices to stop operations in the event of a quake.

THE NEED FOR PIPELINES

Two new pipelines, probably in a single trench, will be needed to carry oil and natural gas, which is also in the Palisades field, from the drilling site. The pipes would run under streets in Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Santa Monica and then connect with a larger underground pipeline. The city environmental impact report said the pipeline would be less than 5 miles long and would take about 30 working days to build--one mile for each six working days. The Coalition for Clean Air has protested that Occidental has “seriously understated” the construction period. “This will result in a greater dislocation of traffic and, consequently, a greater impact on air quality than the report projects.”

THE AIR POLLUTION ISSUE

Construction of the drilling site will produce exhaust and dust from earth-moving equipment, the environmental impact report said. But the report, prepared with Occidental’s help, said the project itself would not substantially increase smog-producing motor vehicle traffic. “This proposed project is expected to generate only 80 vehicle trips a day,” the report said.

Occidental foes disagree, and say that pollution and congestion impact of traffic on Pacific Coast Highway and Palisades streets will be substantial.

They also express concern about additional noise and odors from the drilling site.

More than a decade ago, the county Department of Health Services told the city that “in recent years, there have been several well-documented occurrences in which public concern over inland drilling site odors was of considerable magnitude.” Occidental said it believes that odors from the operation will be minimal.

LOS ANGELES AND OIL DRILLING:

The oil that geologists believe lies beneath the Pacific Palisades--subject of a prolonged controversy between Occidental Petroleum Corp. and its opponents--is no isolated phenomenon. All of the Los Angeles Basin is, in effect, a huge underground oil reservoir, with fields found from the Civic Center to Santa Monica Bay and from Beverly Hills to the suburbs of the South Bay. Through the basin run many earthquake faults, which have helped create the oil fields. Critics of the Occidental project say faults in the Palisades area are especially dangerous. The size of the basin means long pipelines are needed to transport oil to refineries near the South Bay.