Exxon Gets Ok to Truck Crude Oil on California Highway
February 02 2016 - 9:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Molinski
Exxon Mobil Corp. has been given permission to truck hundreds of
thousands of barrels of crude oil on a scenic California highway
after the oil was left stranded in storage tanks following a
pipeline rupture last year.
"The approval is limited to trucking the total of approximately
425,000 barrels of oil currently in two storage tanks at the Exxon
Mobil facility at Las Flores Canyon," Santa Barbara County said in
a press release late Monday.
It said was only allowing Exxon to use crude tanker trucks on
Highway 101, a move environmentalists had long opposed, "to
mitigate the risks associated with long term storage of oil since
the pipeline is expected to be inoperable for a prolonged period of
time, in excess of at least six months."
Exxon officials weren't immediately available to comment.
Back in May, a Plains All American Pipeline used by Exxon to
haul some 30,000 barrels a day of crude suddenly burst due to
corrosion, spilling a large amount of crude oil into the ocean and
on beaches and killing wildlife.
That left Exxon with no way to get its crude oil to refineries,
and facing the prospect of halting production at its offshore
California fields.
At that time, it asked the county for permission to use trucks
to move its crude oil while the pipeline was being fixed. It said
up to eight loaded oil-tanker trucks would use the 101 highway each
hour, 24 hour a day, seven days a week. The county rejected that
plan in June -- amid cheers from environmentalists -- saying it
didn't fit the county's "comprehensive plan."
Santa Barbara said in the press release that Exxon will begin
moving the crude in about three weeks and it will take up to six
months to empty the tanks, at no more than 30 truck trips a day.
Exxon won't be allowed to re-fill the tanks.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2016 08:47 ET (13:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024
