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I know of a place much farther North (of the Santa Barbara Channel), where one can actually see and smell the naturally seeping oil coming to the surface of the water, with no oil well or platform helping to vent the gases. That place is just outside the hundred fathom curve in the vicinity of Ragged Pt., which is in the Southern portion of the Big Sur Coast. Even at night, one knows immediately from the smell, if one is directly near the locale...
Oil, and tar IS quite "natural" along the Coast.
I know of, and have seen these things personally. It stands to reason that one called "capitan refugio" would know these things...(for the un-informed, "Capitan", and "Refugio" are locales West of Santa Barbara...and between these two "Points" and Santa Barbara, (but much closer to S.B.) is "Coal Oil Pt." It's pretty thick along the beach there, hence the name...

If one wanted to find oil and gas seepage even further north, one could travel to Duxbury Point in the Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco. You could also go to Point Arena to see the tar sands in the seacliff near the lighthouse. Or, if one was adventurous, trek up the Bear River or the Mattole River (which on warm summer days carry an iridescent sheen from seeping oil along their banks).

Oil is part of the natural environment. And yes, my screen name is derived from two popular beach areas (and oil and gas fields) along the Santa Barbara coast! I have roots in the area going back into the 1800's.

I thought about your post for a while. Finally I pulled up TopoZone.com and got a map of the area. It occured to me that within a few miles of the area you indicated to have oil and petroleum fumes, the Union Oil Company Tanker "Montebello" was sunk in the first days of World War II. A Japanese "I" Class submarine caught up with her after she departed from Port San Luis (Avila Bay) with a load of petroleum, headed for San Francisco. If my memory serves me (from reading old newspaper account), the "Montebello" attempted to zig-zag away from the sub, but was torpedoed and eventually sunk by shelling from the sub's deck gun. Some recent work by MBARI found the "Montebello" and indicated that at least some of the holds are still intact and contain crude oil. Eventually, through corrosion, the oil will escape and come to the ocean's surface. The "Montebello" sunk in about 800 to 1,000 feet of water, not too far off your 100 fathom line!

The crew abandoned ship, and ended up at the Piedra Blanca lighthouse. I wonder if you haven't found the "Montebello" too!?