About the Pacific OCS Region

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is the Federal agency responsible for managing the Nation's mineral resources offshore the United States and for collecting and disbursing the revenues from the production of all mineral resources on Federal lands, offshore and onshore. Regional offices, of which we are one, handle the day-to-day administration of the MMS program for Federal offshore lands, commonly referred to as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The MMS conducts environmental studies on the potential and real effects of offshore mineral development, issues offshore mineral leases to companies, and regulates the operations conducted under MMS permits on the OCS to ensure that the environment is safeguarded and that the minerals are extracted in a sound manner. 

In addition to issuing permits for mineral exploration, development, and production, we have inspectors in the field 365 days a year to ensure offshore natural gas and oil operations are conducted in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The inspectors are joined in comprehensively overseeing these operations by MMS engineers; geologists; geophysicists; physical, social, and environmental scientists; and other vital support staff.

The Pacific OCS Region extends from the California-Mexico border to the Washington-Canada border.  In the past, we issued leases for natural gas and oil exploration off Washington, Oregon, and California.  However, the only leases remaining are off Southern California. These include 75 leases offshore San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties and 4 leases off Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Forty-three of these leases are producing an average of 78,000 barrels per day of oil and 159 million cubic feet of gas per day. Twenty-three OCS platforms make this possible.

The Region has an exemplary environmental record. Since the tragic spill of 1969 off Santa Barbara, approximately 1,200 wells have been drilled on Federal OCS leases in the Region and over 1.06 billion barrels of oil and 1.33 trillion cubic feet of gas have been produced without a significant incident. Since 1970, the amount of oil spilled from Pacific OCS operations is less than is released into the marine environment every week from natural oil seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel.

The Region remains vigilant in its regulation of the oil industry's operations off California. We work in partnership with the State and other Federal agencies to ensure careful monitoring of the operations and compliance with the laws to ensure safe and clean operations.

Thirty-six OCS leases off California remain undeveloped. Their development is stymied at this time by litigation. The outcome of this litigation and policy decisions by the Department of the Interior, as well as intensive consultation with stakeholders, will determine whether or not the estimated oil and gas resources thought to underlie these leases get developed.

Page content last updated 4/29/2004
Page last published 9/21/2004