100 Chevron Workers Face Layoffs, Transfers : Environment: Restrictions on offshore oil platforms prompt the company to move its regional headquarters to Bakersfield, where many workers will be relocated.

Unhappy with restrictions on offshore oil platforms, Chevron officials are moving forward with plans to lay off or transfer half the company’s 200 employees in Ventura County.

Many of those facing transfers may be relocated at a new regional headquarters being set up in Bakersfield, company officials said Tuesday.

Chevron spokesman Mike Marcy said the move from Ventura County has been prompted by regulatory hurdles imposed on Chevron by Santa Barbara County and a realization that offshore oil production in Southern California is unpopular with politicians and the public.

“It is difficult for any politician to say they are in favor of ongoing oil production, let alone future development,” Marcy said.

Chevron’s Ventura County employees will learn in May whether they will be asked to move, stay in Ventura or find new jobs, Marcy said. He added that the company’s plans include consolidating three offices in the city of Ventura into one, which would employ 100 or so workers who would remain in the county.

“Just like everybody else, I have no idea what the future holds for me,” Marcy said.

Two years ago, Chevron broke ground on what was to be an $18.5-million building for its Ventura County employees. But in November, it abandoned those plans and instead will let the leases run out on two of its three buildings in Ventura.

Chevron owns the building on County Square Road in which the remaining 100 employees will work.

For Ventura County employees, news of the layoffs came as no surprise.

Many Chevron employees who spoke with The Times said they are waiting to hear their fates with mixed emotions. They said they will miss the climate but not the political atmosphere of Southern California.

“It was not so much if, as when. It just comes down to the fact that Southern Californians don’t like oil wells; they just like gas pumps,” said Tim Cooper, a gas process specialist.

“One of the positive aspects about moving to Bakersfield is that the cost of living is lower, and it is a friendlier environment,” Cooper added.

“There are other areas of the world where oil is people’s bread and butter; it’s considered as respectable as any job,” said 1engineer Fred Brownlee.

Electrical engineer Susan Trunnelle said she is confident that she will keep her job with the company, whether in Ventura or Bakersfield.

“I understand it’s hot there, but it’s an adventure to live somewhere else,” she said. She and her fiance, who also works for Chevron, are ready to go wherever they are sent, she said.

The cutbacks in Ventura County are part of a company restructuring announced in February that will eliminate 800 to 1,000 jobs, or 10% to 12% of the company’s U.S. exploration and production forces, the company said.

The company’s failure to date with the Point Arguello project off the coast of Santa Barbara illustrates the industry’s frustrations, Marcy said.

Since 1979, Chevron has sunk $2.2 billion into the project, which includes two never-used Chevron offshore platforms and an onshore processing plant at Gaviota.

Permit problems developed when the oil that was to be shipped ashore by pipeline contained too high a content of toxic hydrogen sulfide, said Lauren Urbias, Santa Barbara County planner.

To date, Chevron has been unable to work out a method of allowing oil to be piped ashore that is acceptable to Santa Barbara officials. The company, in the interim, has applied for a permit from the county to use oil tankers to bring the oil to the Gaviota plant, and then on to Los Angeles.

Santa Barbara County is writing a supplemental environmental impact review statement on the issue. Urbias expects the process to be complete by November.

Meanwhile, Chevron has not produced oil from its platforms. The employees brought to Ventura County to work on Point Arguello and other projects are being transferred, Marcy said.

“The fact of the matter is that offshore development has been made so untenable by local governments that the oil industry is withering away on the West Coast,” Marcy said. “We know the public expects a risk-free environment and unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that.”