Venoco Barge Olympic Spirit 

Go directly to the current status of the Olympic Spirit.

Background

The Venoco Ellwood Marine Terminal, located in the Coal Oil Point area of southern Santa Barbara County, has been in operation since the 1930s. The facility stores crude oil that is produced on Platform Holly. A barge arrives periodically to load oil from the facility for transport to refineries in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Recently the Barge  Olympic Spirit, a new double-hulled barge, replaced the single-hulled Barge Jovalan.

As the cargo holds on the Barge Olympic Spirit are filled with crude oil, vapors in the cargo holds are displaced. The barge is equipped with a vapor recovery system to collect and control these vapors as they are pushed out of the holds. The vapor recovery system cools the vapors to negative 150 degrees Fahrenheit and condenses them to liquids. Any vapors that are not condensed are burned in an engine on the barge.

The barge is equipped with pressure safety valves (PSVs). These valves remain closed during normal operations and keep oil vapors from being released into the atmosphere. The PSVs will allow oil vapors into the atmosphere if the pressure inside the cargo holds becomes too high.This prevents potential structural damage to the barge. The PSVs have pressure monitors installed that keep track of the pressure in real time. Prior to the PSVs opening to the atmosphere, Venoco and the barge operator are required to take appropriate actions (e.g. cease oil loading) if high pressures are detected.

The real-time data and status of the barge loading events are available on this page. Historical data are also available for review from that page.

If you have any questions, or would like to be put on the Barge Olympic Spirit email notification list, please contact Ben Ellenberger at: ellenbergerb@sbcapcd.org.