New U.S. Rules to Affect 4 Area Offshore Rigs : Pollution: The air regulations call for the same standards for ocean oil and gas platforms as for those located onshore.

Tough new anti-pollution requirements for 23 oil and gas platforms off the California coast--four of them in waters off Ventura County--were announced Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The regulations, which impose the same air pollution controls on offshore oil rigs nationwide as those found onshore, are the first to be put into force under the federal Clean Air Act since it was strengthened in 1990.

Environmentalists and county air pollution control officials lauded the new regulations, while oil company executives complained about the high cost of complying with the stricter air quality standards.

All new offshore emission sources must comply with the rule immediately, but existing pollution sources have two years to comply.

The new rule switches the jurisdiction over the offshore oil rigs from the U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service to the federal EPA or to counties that can show they are adequately equipped to do the job.

“It is something we have been pushing for,” said Keith Duval of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. “We feel we can undertake this program a lot better than EPA could.”

Duval said the new regulations will help the county achieve its targeted 5% annual reduction in emissions.

The rule--nine months behind schedule--not only will cut smog that blows onshore, but will remove a bone of contention between regional air quality authorities and the federal government.

Regional officials have long complained that while the EPA has required them to meet federal clean air standards onshore, the Interior Department has made that difficult by exempting offshore oil and gas platforms from similar controls.

For Unocal Corp., the new regulations only create new hassles.

Unocal’s onshore operations and crew and supply boats are located in Ventura County, but EPA regulations place the jurisdiction of its oil rigs in Santa Barbara County.

“It’s adding what we consider unnecessary red tape and confusion,” said Unocal spokeswoman Janet McClintock, noting that the company may have to work with air pollution control districts in two counties rather than one.

At Chevron USA Inc., public affairs Manager Mark Marcy said the new rule will force the company to spend more than $1.3 million on modernizing equipment to bring Gail and Grace--two oil platforms off Ventura County--into compliance.

Describing the new measures as “another nail in the coffin of the California offshore oil industry,” Marcy said government should strive for a more equitable balance between environmental protection and economic growth.

Last May, a suit charging failure to issue the rule was filed against the EPA by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District and the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara. The Clean Air Act required the rule by last Nov. 15.

The EPA said Monday that the delay was because of extended public hearings. “We really went out of the way to get as much public comment as possible--out of the normal limits--and that slowed it down,” EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said from Washington.

Within two years, the regulations are expected to reduce the amount of smog-forming volatile organic compounds emitted off Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties by more than 620 tons annually, the EPA said. About 750 tons per year of nitrogen dioxide also will be cut.

The cost of complying with the rule for all outer continental shelf polluters nationwide will be $5 million in 1994, the EPA said.

Marcy of Chevron described the estimated reduction in pollutants as “overstated” and the projected cost to oil companies as “grossly understated.”

Besides California, the new rule will cover all oil and gas rigs and drilling ships off the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic coasts of the United States, and the Gulf Coast off Florida. Exempted are the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Stammer is a Times environmental writer and Rother is a Times correspondent.