Oil Industry Los Angeles

You could spot Phil Esparza for an oilman anywhere, with his white Texaco hard hat, rubber boots and dusty blue work pants. He talks oil. He enthuses about oil. "There's nothing better than a good hydrocarbon smell," he says. "I love it." At the moment, Esparza is killing the thing he loves. The smell of petroleum is in the air as Esparza works in the midday sun on the property of the Los Angeles Farmers Market, at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street.

You could spot Phil Esparza for an oilman anywhere, with his white Texaco hard hat, rubber boots and dusty blue work pants. He talks oil. He enthuses about oil. "There's nothing better than a good hydrocarbon smell," he says. "I love it." At the moment, Esparza is killing the thing he loves. The smell of petroleum is in the air as Esparza works in the midday sun on the property of the Los Angeles Farmers Market, at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street.

In its second major sale in a week, Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Wednesday that it will sell its North Sea oil and gas holdings to France's Societe Nationale Elf Aquitaine for $1.35 billion in cash. The sale, applauded by analysts and Wall Street investors, will put the company ahead of schedule in meeting its goal of cutting $3 billion of long-term debt under an ambitious restructuring instituted after the death of company patriarch Armand Hammer last December.

For almost a decade, Tom Flynn has been up to his neck in black gold, Texas tea--oil, that is, and lots of it. But he isn't happy. Instead of getting rich, Flynn, 47, has struck a gusher of financial trouble. The oil is sinking his furniture factory, Tradewest Hardwood Co. in Wilmington, and Flynn is fighting to keep the 81-year-old firm out of bankruptcy.

Ending a seven-year legal battle, the Los Angeles City Council approved a settlement Wednesday that clears the way for construction of a pipeline that will carry 130,000 barrels of heated crude oil per day from Kern County through the San Fernando Valley, northeast and South Los Angeles to refineries in Wilmington.

After a heated clash between supporters and opponents of a proposed oil pipeline that would bisect the city, Los Angeles officials said Monday that the project fails to adequately address many environmental concerns, including a threat to the city's water supply.

Amid a heated jobs-vs-the-environment debate, the Los Angeles City Council took preliminary steps Tuesday to challenge a proposed pipeline that would pump hot crude oil through the heart of the city. While the council stopped short of ordering a lawsuit, it instructed the city attorney's office to be prepared to launch a legal challenge as soon as environmental studies for the pipeline are approved by the state as early as March.

Occidental Unloads IBP Stake: Occidental Petroleum Corp. said its 51% stake in IBP Inc. has been sold, as expected, for $360 million. But the transaction was less successful for its underwriters--who ended up buying most of the securities. Oxy's sale of 24 million shares in the nation's largest producer of beef and pork products will reduce the company's debt by $760 million.

The proposed Angeles Pipeline, which would carry 330,000 barrels of oil a day under the Los Angeles Basin, suffered a significant defeat Tuesday when the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to oppose it.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has decided to oppose as environmentally too risky a planned $225-million crude oil pipeline that would run beneath 13 cities, including parts of Glendale, Burbank and several miles of Los Angeles, The Times has learned. Bradley, who has remained noncommittal over the controversial Angeles Pipeline, will announce his opposition at a City Hall news conference scheduled for this morning after deciding sometime last week to speak out against the project, sources said.

Builders have started construction on 188 single-family homes on an operating oil field in Signal Hill, demonstrating how Southern California's real estate boom is rendering some land more valuable for real estate development than for oil production.

The California environmental group Communities for a Better Environment on Thursday announced a settlement with one of several oil companies the group sued in federal court two years ago. Ultramar, which has a refinery in Wilmington, has agreed to several measures to reduce pollution there, a spokesman for the environmental group said.

Chicago-based GATX Corp., which operates a network of oil pipelines in the Los Angeles harbor area, was ordered to spend $750,000 to upgrade its system as part of a court settlement of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from an oil leak last year in Wilmington. Compton Superior Court Judge Rose Hom also ordered the company to pay $90,000 in punitive damages resulting from a pin-hole-size leak in a pipeline that trickled hundreds of gallons of oil into Compton Creek late last summer.

The proposed Angel City business and entertainment center on Crown Hill just west of downtown Los Angeles already has aroused criticism, most of it surrounding the development's novel centerpiece: a giant, sword-wielding bronze angel that builders hope to place atop a 750-foot tower. A little more than a century ago, the neighborhood was also a focus of public attention, much of it centering on a deeply religious piano teacher-turned-wildcatter, Emma A.

The L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board has ordered Mobil Oil Corp. to step up efforts to clean up the site of a former gas station that it says contaminated Santa Monica's water supply. The new order includes tighter deadlines, requires monthly progress reports and instructs Mobil to "submit a comprehensive remedial action plan" to restore the Arcadia well field to full production by April 30.

After seven years of political battling, construction of the controversial Pacific Pipeline begins in earnest Monday. If all goes as planned, the new pipeline should be carrying crude oil under the Los Angeles Basin by next spring. The 132-mile pipeline generally follows the Golden State Freeway from Kern County to the San Fernando Valley, then runs along the Union Pacific Railroad right of way until it reaches refineries in El Segundo, Wilmington and Long Beach.

Following a heated clash between supporters and opponents of a proposed oil pipeline that would bisect the city, Los Angeles officials said Monday that the project fails to adequately address many environmental concerns, including a threat to the city's water supply.

In the face of opposition from neighborhood groups and public officials, Los Angeles officials are backing off from an earlier recommendation to exempt Mobil Oil's plans to replace 75 miles of its aging and leaky pipeline from an environmental review. Requiring such a review would delay the $75-million pipeline for months.

When the last length of pipe is laid next year, the $170-million Pacific Pipeline will pump 130,000 barrels of heated crude oil each day through the heart of Los Angeles. The project will cut a route through one of the most seismically active regions in the state. It will bisect the most densely populated minority communities in the city and run only 30 feet below an aqueduct that carries 75% of Los Angeles' water supply.

Ending a seven-year legal battle, the Los Angeles City Council approved a settlement Wednesday that clears the way for construction of a pipeline that will carry 130,000 barrels of heated crude oil per day from Kern County through the San Fernando Valley, northeast and South Los Angeles to refineries in Wilmington.