By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An oil spill of 700 barrels of crude spilled from a pipeline near California's coast on Thursday but was quickly contained in a dry creek bed and did not reach the Pacific Ocean in Ventura County, officials said.

The Ventura County Fire Department had initially estimated the size of the leak from the Crimson Pipeline at 5,000 barrels, but later said a much smaller amount was released in a stain stretching a half-mile.

The line was shut shortly after the discovery of the spill, which was a tiny fraction of an infamous offshore blowout in 1969 that spewed up to 100,000 barrels into the ocean and halted new drilling in California by galvanizing environmentalists.