Drilling Advance Rekindles Santa Barbara Oil Wars : Energy: Mobil wants to remove offshore rig, use new method to bore beneath ocean from coast. Foes cry foul.

Ever since the world’s first offshore oil well was dug at the end of a Summerland pier a century ago, residents here have been battling big oil.

All around are reminders of their defeats: Unsightly oil platforms dot the ocean. In some places, the faint odor of petroleum wafts through the air. Tar seeps from the sea floor and lingers on beaches. And many people still recall the 1969 Union Oil spill that spewed 4.2 million gallons of crude into the ocean, killing birds and contaminating beaches.

Now, casting itself as a protector of the marine environment, Mobil Oil Corp. is proposing to use new land-based technology to recover oil from a coveted offshore deposit that is closed to ocean drilling. Using new “extended reach” techniques, Mobil wants to bore wells on the UC Santa Barbara campus and burrow under the ocean to reach the oil field two miles from shore.

If successful, Mobil’s plan could set a precedent and open the California coastline to new onshore oil operations, with companies drilling horizontally under the sea floor as far as three miles to extract offshore petroleum.

“This would basically open up a new generation of oil and gas development off our coast,” protested Linda Krop, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara. “We don’t want to see drilling from onshore.”

Opponents argue that land-based drilling for oil off Santa Barbara County would mean development of a major industrial facility, with a 17-story drilling tower and accompanying potential toxic hazards near a residential neighborhood.

Mobil officials, however, say the new directional drilling method would allow the recovery of valuable oil without the possibility of offshore spills.

Calling its proposal “Clearview,” Mobil has offered to remove an aging oil platform--long an eyesore off UCSB and its student enclave, Isla Vista--in exchange for permission to drill.

The company also promises to build a new pipeline to transport its oil to a Torrance refinery and halt the riskier practice of barging the product.

“If you look at the amount of reserves we can produce, it’s good for Mobil, it’s good for the county, and it’s good for the whole state,” said Shauna Clarke, the Mobil official heading the effort. “The state and the county will have the revenue, and it will eliminate the possibility of an offshore spill.”

But Mobil’s proposal, to be unveiled formally early next year, sets the stage for renewed battle over offshore oil just as opponents in Santa Barbara believed they had something to celebrate.

Earlier this year, Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature designated all state waters--which extend three miles from shore--as a sanctuary where no new offshore drilling will be allowed. In addition, some offshore platforms are nearing the end of their useful lives and will soon be removed, beginning next year with four rigs off southern Santa Barbara County that will not be replaced.

But the sanctuary law does not ban drilling under the ocean from land. And Mobil may benefit from a conservative shift in key government agencies produced by the 1994 elections.

In Santa Barbara County, for example, pro-business candidates won a majority on the Board of Supervisors this year. And with Republicans taking charge of the state Assembly, the GOP is expected to control a majority of the Coastal Commission for the first time.

“We think there is going to be more of a shift toward pro-business after the beginning of the year,” Clarke said.

Human use of the region’s oil deposits dates back thousands of years to Native Americans sealing their boats with tar. The first commercial development began in 1890 with an asphalt mine where the university now stands.

The first protests over “desecration” of the coastline came in 1896, with construction of the first offshore wells at Summerland. Two decades later, drilling from piers at Ellwood 20 miles west sparked renewed outrage.

“There was protest right from the beginning (of offshore drilling),” said Bob Sollen, a retired Santa Barbara reporter who is writing a book on the history of offshore oil. “It was a mess because there were no regulations.”

The outcry over the offshore operations at Summerland and Ellwood ultimately led to the state’s first offshore sanctuary in 1955, protecting a limited area off the coast of Santa Barbara between the two oil fields. Although only vestiges of the piers still stand, contamination at Summerland and Ellwood remains, Sollen said.

As technology improved in the 1960s, oil companies began building offshore platforms out beyond the protected area. When Union Oil’s offshore well blew out in 1969, it created one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters and helped ignite the modern-day environmental movement.

Mobil, which proposes basing its operation on sites left from the heyday of the Ellwood Field, acknowledges that the region is one of the most hostile to oil development in the world.

“At first we thought it was crazy to go into Santa Barbara,” said Ken Miner, a Mobil operations manager. But the possibility of extracting the oil without drilling offshore was intriguing enough to persuade Mobil to try.

The plan was the brainchild of Charles Warren, a longtime Democratic assemblyman from Los Angeles who helped draft the state’s Coastal Protection Act in the 1970s.

As executive director of the State Lands Commission, which oversees offshore oil drilling, Warren envisioned a trade-off that would recover oil, produce government revenue and remove Platform Holly, the rig perched since 1966 off UCSB and Isla Vista.

After reading how the new high-tech wells could recover oil at great distances, Warren said he realized the technique could be used to reach offshore oil anywhere within the state’s three-mile limit, and he brought the idea to Mobil.

“This means we don’t have to build platforms offshore,” Warren said. “And any risk of oil spills offshore could be eliminated if we could find acceptable sites onshore.”

While familiar with Santa Barbara’s resistance to oil drilling, Warren said it was the logical place to try the technique because of the known reserves sitting just off UCSB in the South Ellwood Field. In the North Sea, such wells have been used to extract oil from more than four miles away.

“I thought at the time that this would be acclaimed, not only as an economic masterstroke but also as an environmental masterstroke,” lamented Warren, who retired earlier this year. “I’m still bewildered by the vehemence and the nature of the opposition.”

The about 105 million barrels of oil sought by Mobil lie in two deposits, one 3,000 feet and the other 10,000 feet below the ocean floor--next to the Holly field but out of reach of conventional drilling technology.

It is just east of Holly that oil and gas seep from vents in the sea floor, casting a smelly, oily sheen on the ocean and coagulating into tar that sticks to swimmers and washes up on county beaches.

Mobil, which estimates that up to 4,000 gallons of gas and oil seep into the ocean there daily, captures some of the escaping petroleum with giant underwater tents. Company geologists say the seepage is natural, but critics contend that it is exacerbated by oil production.

Arco, which once owned rights to the field, sought to build three platforms and tap the oil but was turned down in 1987 by the county and the State Lands Commission.

When Warren took his idea of onshore drilling to Mobil, the company liked it so much it bought out Arco’s interests and began developing the scheme.

Although Mobil has not finalized its plan, it proposes to drill from shore at the old Ellwood Marine Terminal, where it now stores and ships the oil produced by Holly.

The company would build a 175-foot-tall drilling tower--making it one of the tallest structures between Los Angeles and San Jose. The landmark would probably remain standing throughout the 25-year life of the project, Clarke said.

Oil produced by the wells would be sent by pipeline to Torrance, although Mobil must build a 26-mile pipeline to Carpinteria to connect with an existing line.

Natural gas--containing a high level of deadly hydrogen sulfide--would be piped two miles west to the Ellwood Onshore Facility, an existing Mobil plant that would be upgraded to process the increased volume.

Mobil officials tout a variety of environmental benefits. In addition to removing Platform Holly and transporting oil by pipeline, they say pumping out the oil would reduce the natural seepage.

But environmentalists and homeowners--including many UCSB faculty members--say Mobil has picked a poor site to drill because it is near schools, a residential neighborhood, a popular beach and Devereux Slough, part of a noted nature preserve.

Labeling the project “Drillview” because of the tower, these opponents say that it will produce visual blight and that its 24-hour-a-day operation will mean increased traffic, noise and light.

Even more serious, they say, is the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the natural gas pumped up by the wells. Although Mobil insists it can handle the gas safely, critics fear a leak could pose a serious threat to nearby homes and the preserve.

“What Clearview would do is shift the hazards onto land and extend them for a longer period,” said Bruce Bimber, a political science professor at UCSB who is leading homeowner opposition to the project.

Environmentalists, who argue for an end to use of fossil fuels, say there is only enough oil in the field to supply the nation for seven days--not enough to warrant building facilities that would last more than a generation.

Foes also contend that Mobil’s offer to remove Platform Holly is hollow because it is running out of oil and will soon come down anyway--a contention disputed by the oil company. As long as prices remain high, Mobil says, there is enough oil to keep Holly in production until its lease expires in 2016.

Mobil officials also say they can run a safe operation and mitigate most environmental effects, such as noise, lighting and traffic. In many places, including the Los Angeles area, oil operations coexist peacefully with residential and commercial neighbors, they note.

The opponents’ best chance to block the project appears to lie with the university, which recently became Mobil’s landlord.

Seeking to build new faculty and student housing, UCSB recently acquired a 174-acre parcel that includes the proposed drilling site. Under its lease, Mobil can continue using the property to store and ship oil until 2016, but cannot drill without UCSB’s approval.

University officials say they have not reached a decision, but acknowledge that Mobil’s proposal may not mesh with their plan to build homes that would draw star professors from throughout the country. Indeed, some current faculty members threaten to bolt UCSB if the drilling project is approved.

“On the face of it, it would appear incompatible,” said Bob Kuntz, assistant UCSB chancellor for budget and planning. “However, Mobil believes they can make it compatible.”

At the popular Devereux beach just below the proposed drilling site, UCSB students and surfers were hostile to Mobil’s plan--even if it would mean removing Platform Holly from view. “It’s all about money,” said psychology student Jack Seidler. “They (Mobil) don’t care about the environment. They’re looking out for themselves and sugarcoating it with an environmental plea.”

Drilling Plan

Mobil Oil Corp. proposes to use new directional drilling technology to bore under the ocean from shore and recover offshore oil reserves now off limits to drilling. Calling its proposal “Clearview,” the company would remove the aging offshore Platform Holly and end the barging of oil. But environmentalists oppose the plan because it would mean construction of an industrial facility including a 17-story drill tower onshore near UC Santa Barbara, the Isla Vista community, faculty homes and a nature preserve including Devereux Slough.

Ellwood Onshore Facility: Now used to process oil and gas produced by Platform Holly. It would be upgraded to handle increased production.

Ellwood Marine Terminal: Now used to store oil and load it on barges to Los Angeles. It is the proposed drilling site, where gas and oil would be seperated.

HOW IT WOULD WORK

1) Mobil would use new “extended reach” drilling techniques, angling a well almost 90 degrees and boring horizontally under the ocean.

From the Ellwood Marine Terminal onshore, Mobil would drill 500 to 1,000 feet straight down, then gradually turn every 100 feet until the turn is complete.

2) The petroleum would be pumped to the marine terminal, where the oil and gas would be separated. Oil would be pumped through a proposed pipeline to Carpinteria.

3) The gas, which contains deadly hydrogen sulfide, would travel by underwater pipeline to Mobil’s existing onshore processing plant, next to the Sandpiper Golf Course.