Still, the state would face a fight over future earnings if it forced an operator to close a productive platform, Sivas said.Įven when the operator shutters an old platform voluntarily, the cost can be significant. State agencies hold similar authority over platforms and pipelines in state waters in fact, their authority over pipelines and the coastal zone in general could conceivably be used to regulate aging platforms in federal waters, said Richard Charter of the Ocean Foundation. There’s a pretty robust takings claim here.” “No facility’s going to take that lying down. Sivas, a professor of environmental law at Stanford Law School. “Trying to shut down an existing facility that has its leases and drilling permits is exceedingly difficult,” said Deborah A. But the law also entitles the lease holder to be compensated for lost profits, which could be enormous for a productive well. Doing so to a well that was still producing oil, however, could cost the taxpayers a bundle.įederal law authorizes the secretary of the Interior to suspend and, eventually, cancel an offshore lease or permit in the case of a serious threat to human or aquatic life, property, the environment or national security. The state and federal government both have the power to force wells within their jurisdictions to cease operating under certain circumstances if needed to protect the public. The pipelines in the area are marked on nautical maps, and ships aren’t allowed to set anchor randomly instead, they are assigned spots by the Marine Exchange of Southern California. The system is supposed to prevent this kind of accident, however. Investigators believe that a tear in that pipeline caused the massive leak over the weekend, and they’re looking at whether the culprit was an anchor from one of the many ships waiting to enter the backlogged Long Beach port. At the surface, the oil may be piped to another platform for processing - that’s the case off the coast of Huntington Beach, where equipment on the Elly platform tests, separates, measures and treats the oil and gas brought to the surface, while also generating the power for the undersea pump.Įlly also pumps the collected oil and gas to shore at the Port of Long Beach through a pipeline that runs along the seabed. The oil enters through perforations in the pipe, then is typically forced up to the surface by a submersible pump. Pipes extend from the underside of each platform at various angles to reach multiple points on the floor hundreds of feet below each one stretches considerably deeper into the ground, reaching into a hidden chamber where oil had collected after rising from petroleum-forming rocks even farther below. The Ellen and Eureka platforms each operate dozens of wells, producing both oil and gas.