California oil spill closes beaches and renews call for drilling ban

The most prominent visible sign on Monday of the major offshore oil spill that threatened some of Southern California’s most popular beaches was a single strip of yellow caution tape blocking the water.

Not far offshore was a 13-square-mile slick that was first spotted Saturday after a pipeline failure caused at least 126,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Pacific Ocean. It was California’s largest offshore leak since 2015, when Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara was fouled by oil after a similar pipeline break.

Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places over the weekend as cleanup crews raced to try to contain the spill, which resulted from a failure in a 17.5-mile pipeline three miles off Newport Beach, officials said. The spill prompted fresh calls for a permanent end to offshore oil production in California, once a major oil-producing state.

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The pipeline transported oil from offshore platforms owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston company that was already in a financially precarious condition.

More than 40 years old, the pipeline connects to a pumping station in Long Beach. Such pipelines are usually designed for a 25-year life, so investigators will probably examine how Amplify maintained and repaired its pipes.

Despite rising oil and gas prices, the company lost $35 million in the second quarter on revenues of $80.4 million. It has attempted to improve its performance in part by investing in its offshore operations in California, which are now suspended because of the leak.

Martyn Willsher, Amplify’s CEO, said Monday that the company believed it had found the location of the leak after inspecting 8,000 feet of pipe.

“There is no active leak that we’re aware of,” Willsher said at a news conference. “We are deeply concerned about what we’re seeing environmentally. Whatever needs to be done, we will take care of it.”

Willsher said workers from his company first saw the oil sheen on Saturday morning and began work to contain the leak. But some energy experts said the company ought to have learned of the leak before oil was visible because gauges that monitor the pressure in the pipeline should have alerted officials.