HOLLY'S
HAUNTED
PAST
A 58-year-old oil rig holds memory of a century of drilling crude oil in Santa Barbara — and the environmental catastrophes that came with it.
Oil Uncovered
In 1928, a pair of adjacent and active oil fields — one on land and the other offshore — were discovered in Santa Barbara County.
Onshore drilling began soon after, but it wasn’t until nearly forty years later that oil companies decided to extend past the shoreline.
Along came Platform Holly.
Out to Sea
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The petroleum company ARCO built the oil rig in 1966 and installed it about two miles off the coast of Goleta, California. The following year, it began harvesting crude oil drilled from 30 wells in the ocean floor.
“This is a platform that has been around a very long time,” said Santa Barbara-based environmentalist and anti-oil advocate Carla Frisk.
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Just several years later, a massive oil leak happened in Santa Barbara.
The devastating effects of the 1969 spill sparked a widespread environmental movement against fossil fuels in the state and across the nation. California responded by banning any new offshore drilling in state waters.
But it was too late to stop Holly. The rig was well underway, and so was growing opposition to the oil industry.
Biologist Milton Love on the origins of offshore fossil fuel drilling in Santa Barbara.
Holly Handed Over
Holly was later sold from ARCO to Mobil. But after extensive drilling, oil yields dwindled and the wells ran too dry for big oil companies to make profit. The platform was leased out to a smaller, local business.
The company, Venoco, operated Holly for nearly 20 years, until a corroded pipeline ruptured and spewed oil onto the beaches and through the waters of Santa Barbara in 2015.
Venoco was unable to survive the Refugio Beach Spill; it stopped operating and declared bankruptcy.
“The pipeline broke and then they had no place for their oil to go,” said Frisk. “Venoco bailed.”
Holly is one of 27 other platforms off the California coast.
Credit: Isabella Genovese
HOLLY OVER TIME
Platform Holly installed by ARCO
1966
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ARCO sells oil leases to Mobil Oil Company
1993
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Holly starts harvesting crude oil
1967
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Mobil leases to Venoco
1997
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Well plug and abandonment activities begin on Holly
2019
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Refugio Beach Oil Spill
2015
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Decommissioning of Holly begins
2022
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Wells are plugged and Holly is fully inactive
2024
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Venoco declares bankruptcy and Holly goes to the California State Lands Commission
2017
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California Coastal Sanctuary prevents any new oil leases
1994
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Platform Holly sits within the three-mile offshore reach of California state waters. So rather than falling under federal jurisdiction — like most other rigs — Holly was left to the state.
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“They said to the state lands commission: here’s the keys, have fun,” said Frisk, who's on the board of Get Oil Out!
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Fully retiring a rig is a long and laborious process that requires specialized equipment and millions of dollars, and in Holly's case, all from the pocket of ExxonMobil.
​“It's not an easy matter for any platform,” said marine biologist Milton Love. Oil wells have to be sealed up to prevent seeping emissions and contaminated water. ​“You have to pour many feet of concrete underneath the sea floor.”
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It took 10 years and upwards of $40,000 per well to plug the 30 wells that once funneled oil into Holly.
This past year the state finished the procedure, and it must now figure out the fate of the nearly 60-year-old rig.
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“That's where we are right now,” said Love. “Getting the platform ready for the state to decide what to do with it.”
Plugging the Wells
The final step of decommissioning the rig is filling in the oil and gas wells.
And they now finishing up.
THE REFUGIO BEACH SPILL
Credit: Gail Osherenko
Natural oil seepages in the ocean happen all of the time.
What happened on May 19, 2015, was not normal.
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140,000 gallons of thick black crude oil seeped onto the northern shores of Santa Barbara County. It was then washed out by waves and delivered down the coast of California
HARM
HAVOC
HOLLY
Credit: Gail Osherenko
Under Highway 101, a pipeline carrying oil from Platform Holly ruptured into a culvert, sending petroleum straight into the ocean. “It spilled just above Refugio Beach,” said environmental lawyer Gail Osherenko.
The oil spread to beaches over 100 miles down the coast of California and damaged over 1,500 acres of shoreline habitat. It smothered shores — closing beaches for two months — and suffocated about 700 marine mammals and birds.
“The waves were black,” said Osherenko, who produced a documentary on the spill. “A lot of wildlife was killed.”
The pipeline that pumped oil from Platform Holly and up the coast to inland California had worn down, and on that day, it finally burst open.
“The pipeline was corroded,” said Osherenko. “It basically broke.”
It had been neglected, and not by accident. “The Plains All American pipeline company based in Texas was not maintaining their pipeline in a safe condition,” said Osherenko. “They knew and didn’t shut it down.”
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The irresponsibility that caused the spill reinforced a growing sentiment that the oil industry — along with its petroleum platforms and pipelines — was unwelcome in Santa Barbara.
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But it wasn’t just the wildlife and Santa Barbara communities that suffered. So did the oil company, Venoco, which was operating Platform Holly at the time.
“It's the Plains Oil Spill that drove Venoco into bankruptcy,” said Osherenko. “It was kind of a done deal.”
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Holly was handed over to the California State Lands Commission, which immediately halted drilling activities, and they haven’t resumed since.
Today, the platform looks the same from above, but far different down below.
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The public responded with protests and outrage: the city could no longer cave to the greedy and careless oil corporations and the catastrophes they caused.
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Efforts and money were funneled into environmental organizations like Get Oil Out!, and fingers pointed to a 1994 state law that prevented new oil leases.
Courtesy of the Daily Nexus