ExxonMobil wants to truck its crude oil through Santa Barbara County while the Plains All American Pipeline system is shut down as a result of investigations into the May 19 oil spill from the company’s Line 901 on the Gaviota Coast.
ExxonMobil sends its crude oil into a Plains pipeline after processing at Las Flores Canyon, and doesn’t want to stop operations while the pipeline is shut down, according to an emergency permit filed with the county Thursday.
It will take several days for the county to review the permit application, county Energy Division Director Kevin Drude told Noozhawk.
SCS Tracer Environmental filed the permit asking for temporary trucking until the pipeline is back to normal operations.
The facility would load an average maximum of eight trucks per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and send those trucks to a handful of locations in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
The trucks would hold 160 barrels of oil, or 6,720 gallons, each, according to the permit application.
The adjacent Pacific Offshore Pipeline Company (POPCO) natural gas treatment facility, operated by ExxonMobil, currently trucks natural gas liquids away.
To get set up for trucking crude oil, ExxonMobil proposes building truck-loading racks on site, at the facility at 12050 Calle Real, about 12 miles west of Santa Barbara.
There wouldn’t be any new roads built, but the company would add a fire hydrant for fire protection, according to the permit application.
The trucks would deliver crude oil to the Gaviota Heating Oil Facility operated by Freeport-McMoRan in Gaviota; the Santa Maria Asphalt Refinery operated by Greka Refining; the Battles Tank Farm in Santa Maria operated by Phillips 66; and the Santa Maria Refinery in Nipomo operated by Phillips 66.
While the other companies using the shut-down Plains pipelines stopped production — FreePort-McMoRan and Venoco, Inc. — ExxonMobil has continued producing oil and natural gas from its offshore production wells, but cut back so it would fit in the onsite storage tanks at Las Flores Canyon.
As of Thursday, ExxonMobil had cut back production from an average of 30,000 barrels a day to 8,500 barrels a day, Drude said.
ExxonMobil said it would fill the onsite storage in less than a month so without an alternative transportation plan, both oil and gas production facilities would be shut down, according to the permit application.
The natural gas is contracted for sale to the Southern California Gas Company.
“The minimum daily production of gas from the Santa Ynez Unit facility is sufficient to service the entire residential population of Santa Barbara County and thus is a critical component of SoCal Gas’ ability to provide adequate natural gas supply for public consumption,” wrote Nathan Eady of SCS Tracer Environmental in the permit application.
FreePort McMoRan representatives told the county they would be submitting an emergency permit for trucking soon, Drude said.
Venoco, which has its Ellwood Onshore Facility in Goleta, would have to go through the city for approval.
As of Friday morning, no permit application had been submitted, city public information officer Valerie Kushnerov said.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.