Plains All American Pipeline will pay the California State Lands Commission a $50.5 million settlement related to the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
It’s the latest legal settlement for the company deemed civilly and criminally responsible for the pipeline rupture that spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil onto the Gaviota Coast of Santa Barbara County.
Plains previously was ordered to pay legal settlements of $60 million to the federal government and $230 million in a class-action lawsuit to fishers and shoreline property residents damaged by the oil spill.
The State Lands Commission and Aspen American Insurance Co. sued Plains alleging that the company’s “negligent maintenance of its pipeline unjustly shifted decommissioning liability to California taxpayers and terminated the state’s royalty income,” commission representatives said this week.
The pipeline has been shut down since the spill. ExxonMobil, Freeport-McMoRan and Venoco Inc. stopped offshore oil production once the pipeline was unavailable, and Venoco declared bankruptcy in 2017.
Ownership of Platform Holly and two oil piers reverted to the State Lands Commission, which took over operations and managed the decommissioning.
The commission went after Plains for compensation to state taxpayers for the damage caused by the spill.
The total settlement is $72.5 million, with $50.5 million going to the state and $22 million going to Aspen American Insurance, the bonding company for Venoco.
Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor and commission chair, said commissioners have worked to “hold polluters accountable and push for a future free from catastrophic oil spills and environmental degradation.”
“This outcome reflects years of relentless effort to demand justice, address the damage left by negligent operators, and reaffirm our commitment to protecting California’s coastline and natural resources,” she said in a statement. “We remain steadfast in leading the charge towards a clean, sustainable energy future.”
The State Lands Commission accepted the settlement proposal in a closed session on Oct. 17.
The new owner of the Plains pipeline, Sable Offshore Corp., plans to restart pipeline operations and oil production for three offshore platforms.