U.S. Closes Oil Platform After Suspected Leak

An oil-drilling platform nine miles off the Orange County coast has been shut down so investigators can determine if an underwater pipeline leaked oil over the weekend.

Platform Eureka will remain closed until the suspected leak in a pipeline 700 feet beneath the ocean surface is found and mended, federal officials said Monday. A remote control submarine will be deployed today to scrutinize the pipeline for a leak.

News of the leak is ill-timed for the oil industry, with the state Coastal Commission meeting today in Santa Barbara to begin grappling with controversial plans for new drilling off the Central Coast.

Platform operations halted Saturday off Orange County after the sighting of an oil sheen in the area. Federal officials suspect that the oil--estimated at less than a barrel--leaked from a 12-inch pipeline linking Eureka and Platform Elly, two of the three platforms in the giant Beta production unit operated by Aera Energy LLC, which Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. jointly own.

The incident marked the first known leak in the pipeline, and the first time that Platform Eureka has been closed because of a leak since it began operating in 1985, Aera and federal officials said.

“There have been very few underwater pipeline leaks along the California coast,” said John Romero, spokesman at the U.S. Minerals Management Service regional office. “Overall, leaks from pipelines are not a frequent occurrence.”

An Aera spokeswoman said that only half a barrel, or 21 gallons, may have leaked, comparing that to the average 4,500 barrels a day produced at Platform Eureka.

The sheen was noticed Saturday morning from the Beta complex, and workers initially thought that it might have been caused by bilge water from a passing ship. They later determined that it was oil, and Platform Eureka was closed early that afternoon, said Aera spokeswoman Susan Hersberger.

By 1 p.m., the sheen had formed a ribbon about two miles long and 20 yards to 100 yards wide, said a U.S. Coast Guard employee who toured the area by helicopter Saturday.

Several officials familiar with oil spills said it is not unusual for a 2-mile sheen to be caused by such a small amount of oil. They described a sheen as an extremely thin coating of oil on ocean water, distinguishing it from an oil slick, which is thicker.

Although even an oil sheen can injure ocean birds and other wildlife, no dead or injured wildlife have been found, the state Department of Fish and Game said.

The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the investigation of the spill, and no one could say Monday when Platform Eureka would restart operations.

The size of the sheen caused by such a small spill “just emphasizes the fact of what a major spill could do to this coastline in short order,” said environmentalist Susan Jordan of the League for Coastal Protection.