LOS ANGELES — One of California’s early offshore oil drilling operations is under fire from state regulators to clean up its act after severely corroded and unsafe wells and other equipment were found at the idle facility as part of ramped-up inspections.

The Department of Conservation focused its renewed enforcement efforts on a facility with ties to an oil company with a long history of spills that allowed man-made Rincon Island wells to fall into disrepair near a popular surf spot on the Southern California coast.

“The number of long-term idle wells at this site in the marine environment is of great concern,” said Ken Harris, supervisor of the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources known as DOGGR. “The operator has failed to maintain the facility to regulatory standards.”

The action aimed at Rincon Island Limited Partnership comes as the state agency tries to take a more proactive approach to regulating the industry after acknowledging shortcomings for what critics have said was a longtime lack of oversight that has led to pollution and other problems.

“DOGGR and industry worked hand in hand for many decades,” said Brian Segee, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Center. “I think there’s an effort being made to try to change that culture.”

The order comes as the agency investigates the cause of a massive natural gas well blowout in October that spewed the largest known amount of climate-changing methane into the atmosphere and drove more than 6,400 families from their Los Angeles homes.

It also follows an oil spill nearly a year ago on the nearby Santa Barbara coast that demonstrated the threat to the marine environment from the petroleum industry, which operates onshore throughout the area and from massive platforms that dot the horizon in federal waters.

A motorist passing along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway would not think Big Oil when spotting tiny palm-dotted Rincon Island that looks more like a tycoon’s hideaway or maybe an exclusive inn.

It was built in the late 1950s by Arco and has served many years as a decent oil producer just beyond the popular Mussel Shoals surf break in Ventura County.

Greka, an oil company responsible for many spills in Santa Barbara County, acquired Rincon Island Limited Partnership in 2002.