PROGRAM AIMS TO 'FINGERPRINT' OIL

Government agencies and the petroleum industry have teamed up in a California program designed to pinpoint the origin of spilled oil.

Involved are the California Department of Fish & Game's Office of Oil Spill Prevention & Response (OSPR) and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA). They are participating in a joint project to compile a database of "fingerprints" for oils that occur from seeps and oils produced in or shipped to California.

Cooperating in the project are the U.S. Minerals Management Service and California's State Lands Commission and the state's Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, as well as other petroleum industry representatives.

NEED FOP DATABASE

OSPR said the need for a fingerprint database surfaced in the 1992-93 winter when it responded to reports of tar balls fouling miles of beaches, mainly in Monterey County. There were three possible sources for the tar balls: naturally occurring oil seeps from fissures along the California coastline, crude oil that might have been lost from passing oil tankers, or possible discharges from oil platforms.

OSPR's Petroleum Chemistry Laboratory in Rancho Cordova, Calif., was called upon to chemically analyze the tar balls to fix their origin. the new laboratory can identify specific characteristics of oil.

OSPR plans to coordinate and participate in collection and further analyses of natural seep oils, platform production, and oil handled at marine terminals along the California coast from Monterey to the Los Angeles Long Beach harbor area.

The main objective of this study is twofold:

Acquisition of data that may help fix the sources of tar balls and other "fugitive" oils that show up on California's north central coast during the winter.
Creation of a representative database that will enable OSPR to better understand the variability of oils in California that may or may not contribute to formation of tar balls.

Oil industry cooperation in safeguarding the coast and recognition of mandates given to OSPR is not new. In 1992, WSPA voluntarily agreed to have its corporate members move their tankers carrying Alaskan crude out to 50 nautical miles from the California mainland to provide the coastline added protection from potential oil spills.