Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Coal Oil Point seep field

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Phone
  
+1 510-987-0150

Coal Oil Point seep field

Address
  
Slough Rd, Isla Vista, CA 93117, USA

Hours
  
Open today · Open 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hours

Similar
  
Refugio State Beach, Kendall‑Frost Mission Bay Mars, Younger Lagoon Reserve, Stunt Ranch Santa Mo, Rincon

Profiles

The Coal Oil Point seep field offshore from Santa Barbara, California is a petroleum seep area of about three square kilometres, adjacent to the Ellwood Oil Field, and releases about 40 tons of methane per day and about 19 tons of reactive organic gas (ethane, propane, butane and higher hydrocarbons), about twice the hydrocarbon air pollution released by all the cars and trucks in Santa Barbara County in 1990. The liquid petroleum produces a slick that is many kilometres long and when degraded by evaporation and weathering, produces tar balls which wash up on the beaches for miles around.

This seep also releases on the order of 100 to 150 barrels (16 to 24 m3) of liquid petroleum per day. The field produces about 9 cubic meters of natural gas per barrel of petroleum.

Leakage from the natural seeps near Platform Holly, the production platform for the South Ellwood Offshore oilfield, has decreased substantially, probably from the decrease in reservoir pressure due to the oil and gas produced at the platform.

History

Written records, dating from as early as 1792, describe effects of offshore seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel. Oil and tar "slicks" have long been a trademark of the area. In 1792, Captain Cook's navigator George Vancouver recorded on passing through the Channel (Imray, 1868):

The surface of the sea, which was perfectly smooth and tranquil, was covered with a thick, slimy substance, which when separated or disturbed by a little agitation, became very luminous, whilst the light breeze, which came principally from the shore, brought with it a strong smell of tar, or some such resinous substance.

References

Coal Oil Point seep field Wikipedia