California’s top oil producer has the green light to acquire a key California oil pipeline system that has been teetering on the brink of financial collapse.
What happened: The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday voted to approve the California Resources Corporation’s purchase of the San Pablo Bay Pipeline and Crimson California Pipeline companies from CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust.
The system, totaling about 2,000 miles of pipeline, includes arteries that connect the Kern County oil fields to refineries in the Bay Area and the Ventura County oil fields to refineries in the Long Beach region.
Why it matters: The San Pablo Bay Pipeline has been idle since December, cutting off California oil producers’ access to refineries in the Bay Area and putting strain on the remaining pipelines connecting to the Los Angeles region. The CRC acquisition marks a new chapter for the pipeline, which has become a point of concern among California oil industry leaders.
