Decommissioning Stalls at Platform Holly, Continues at Piers 421
Coronavirus Interrupts Work at Offshore Oil Rig Until Disease Retreats
The decommissioning of Platform Holly has stalled due to COVID-19, the California State Lands Commission announced at a meeting in Goleta on August 27, but at Piers 421, the well plugging has finished and deliberations on the facilities’ removal have begun. Both Holly and Piers 421 originally went idle in 2017, when oil and gas company Venoco declared bankruptcy and transferred their control to the state.
Jeff Planck, project lead for Platform Holly’s decommissioning, said 14 of the platform’s 30 wells had been plugged but that progress had halted in March following the COVID-19 outbreak. The decision to stop arose from the difficulty of maintaining social distancing between the 30 to 40 necessary workers, both on the platform and on crew boats.
Planck expressed hopes of resuming work by early January, but he stressed that progress would likely remain stalled at least until social distancing requirements relax or a therapeutic treatment or vaccine for the virus becomes available. The commission staff estimated that once work restarts, plugging will take another 12 to 18 months, after which discussions on the fate of the platform’s physical infrastructure could commence.
