VENTURA : Mobil to Close Wells at Ferguson Piers

The Mobil oil company has announced that it will close oil wells at the Ferguson Piers, seven miles north of Ventura.

Since Mobil started its operation on the piers in the 1930s, it has drilled 86 wells that have produced 14 million barrels of oil. But declining oil production at its nine remaining wells persuaded Mobil to abandon the operation.

“It’s no longer cost-effective for us to keep the pier operations going,” said Dolores Taylor, a spokeswoman for Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S. Inc. in Santa Barbara.

The nine wells each produce an average of 20 barrels of oil a day, Taylor said. The value of the oil production has not kept pace with the cost of operating the wells, she said.

Mobil leases the area from the state, which requires that the company plug each of the wells before abandoning the site. Mobil will be required to plug each well with more than 100 feet of concrete, said Jim Trout, assistant director of the State Lands Commission, which monitors the lease.

In addition, each well will be cut off at the ocean floor so that nothing protrudes from the ocean bottom, Trout said.

Trout said the State Lands Commission will oversee the closure of the operation. He said Mobil has had a perfect safety record at the facility over its 60 years of operation and that he expects the closure to go smoothly.

The closure will not cost any jobs at the Ventura facility as Mobil will maintain its oil drilling and storage operation across the highway from the piers, Taylor said.