Small Oil Spill Reported Off Ferguson Piers

A small amount of oil spilled into the ocean off the Ferguson Piers seven miles north of Ventura this week.

Mobil Oil, which has operated at the site since 1928, is capping the nine wells there. As workers were preparing to cap one of the wells, 10 to 15 gallons of oil spilled into the water Wednesday, a company spokesman said.

Despite the small size of the spill, four or five boats from Clean Seas in Carpinteria and a beach crew from Ecology Control Inc., an oil spill cleanup contractor that works for Mobil, went to the scene. A boom was placed around the oil at 10:30 a.m. and a skimmer picked up the spill within a few hours, said David Barger, a business team supervisor for Mobil.

“We wanted to make sure we responded promptly,” said Barger, who drove out to the site from his office in Bakersfield. “We have a good track record there. The only other spill I remember was in 1991 when six gallons got into the water.”

The state Lands Commission confirmed Barger’s assessment.

Since Mobil started its operation on the piers, it has drilled 86 wells that have produced 14 million barrels of oil. But declining oil production at its nine remaining wells persuaded Mobil to abandon the operation.

Mobil is removing all of the drilling equipment and pumps from the piers and will plug each well with more than 100 feet of concrete. Each well will be cut off at the ocean floor so nothing protrudes from the ocean bottom.

Barger said the oil was cleaned up by late Wednesday afternoon.