Torrance OKs Mobil’s Plan for Pipeline

The Torrance City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Mobil Oil Corp.’s plans for a new underground oil pipeline, designed to carry crude from Kern County to the South Bay, but only after placing several conditions on the project.

The conditions address concerns that a larger pipeline could mean increased refining capacity at the company’s Torrance refinery, and therefore more pollution.

Mobil spokesman Barry Engelberg said Wednesday that Mobil’s attorneys will study the conditions made by the council.

“Our attorneys will make the proper determination when they have all the facts,” Engelberg said. “We are awaiting the attorneys’ judgments.”

As proposed, the 92-mile pipeline would link Mobil’s Torrance refinery to oil fields in Kern County. In the South Bay, it will run south through Inglewood, Lennox and part of Hawthorne along Inglewood Avenue, east to Prairie Avenue on 120th Street in Hawthorne, and south on Prairie to the refinery.

The council attached a requirement that limits the amount of crude oil sent through the pipeline to 95,000 barrels per day--50% more than the existing line--and prohibits Mobil from boosting the total amount of oil refined at its north Torrance plant above 130,000 barrels per day.

The third condition states that the city should determine what happens to the old pipeline. Mayor Katy Geissert said the city may want to find its own use for the old line, perhaps using it to carry reclaimed water or fiber optic cable. Alternatively, the city may require Mobil to remove the old line to ensure that it is not used to supplement the crude oil entering the refinery.

“I think that the broader community will be much better served by a new state-of-the-art pipeline than we are by the old pipeline,” Geissert said.

Eleven people spoke to the council about the pipeline, most expressing concerns about the pipeline’s larger size and what they fear could be a potential for increasing air pollution. Some have said they fear the pipeline would transform the refinery into a “crude oil supermarket” where trucks would pick up oil and carry it elsewhere.