Firm to Pay $48,000 to U.S. for Oil Leak From Pipeline

The owner of a pipeline that oozed more than 2,000 gallons of oil into the ocean off Orange County last year has agreed to pay a $48,000 fine levied by federal regulators.

The U.S. Minerals Management Services fined Aera Energy LLC for improper calibration of a leak-detection system in a pipeline about 10 miles off Huntington Beach.

While the company disagreed with some findings that led to the fine, company spokeswoman Susan Hersberger said the Bakersfield-based oil and natural gas company would pay the money. Aera, a partnership of Mobil Oil Corp. and Shell Oil Co., operates a three-platform complex off Orange County.

The fine resulted from a federal investigation of a June spill from an ocean-floor pipeline 700 feet underwater. It was the first of two spills last year from the 1.8-mile-long pipeline later found to have seven pinhole-size leaks. The corroded pipeline, which carried oil, water and gas from platform Eureka to platform Elly, was shut down after the June spill.

Although the June spill triggered the investigation, the problems uncovered were not related to the spill, Hersberger said.

Environmentalists said the fine was insignificant.

“It does not [even] amount to a slap on the wrist,” said Mark Massara of the Sierra Club. “I don’t know how that’s designed to discourage future bad conduct.”

Minerals Management Services and the state Department of Fish and Game are still investigating the two spills, and further fines could be levied.

About a week after the June spill, tar balls washed up at four Orange County beaches. Laboratory tests showed that those found at Crystal Cove State Park matched oil leaking from the line. Testing of tar balls found at three other beaches was inconclusive.

The second spill began on Halloween, as the line was being cleaned in anticipation of conversion into a water pipeline. It seeped oil for 11 days, releasing as much as 1,800 gallons of residual oil. Tar balls were found at Newport Beach, but laboratory tests have not yet been completed to determine whether they came from the leaking pipeline.

Oil drifted toward Orange County beaches, at one point coming within three miles of shore. When the spill was spotted, it had spread into a mile-long, 100-foot-wide sheen on the ocean surface.

Fish and Game officials found four birds that died from contact with oil. Environmentalists say probably more died far offshore.