The Pacific OCS Region continues to pursue effective management of America's offshore oil and gas resources. The Region works closely with other Federal agencies, the State of California, local governments, environmental and other interest groups, the general public, and the oil and gas industry to achieve our resource management responsibilities. While this makes our job especially challenging, we take pride that we are able to oversee the development of the Nation's offshore oil and gas resources while ensuring clean operations, environmental safety, and the use of evolving technologies.

The Region has been an important contributor to the Nation's hydrocarbon inventory, with over 1.06 billion barrels of oil and 1.33 trillion cubic feet of gas produced here over the past 36 years. It is estimated that about 362 million barrels of oil and over 1.09 trillion more cubic feet of natural gas remain to be recovered from the 43 producing leases.

The Region is working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen security in America's coastal waters. The Region continues to work with USCG, FBI, the Transportation Security Administration, offshore oil and gas operators, Western States Petroleum Association, and southern California ports to develop a Security Communication Network in response to the need for an early notification system for all offshore operations and the Platform Protection Plan, a document used in establishing specific platform security plans.

Safety is our number one concern, and we are proud of the safety record in the Pacific Region. Since 1970, about 845 barrels have been lost into the marine environment from the Pacific OCS operations. This is less oil than is released into the ocean from natural seeps offshore California in any given week. However, we are not satisfied to rest on our accomplishments in managing safety to date. The MMS continues to research and develop better ways of regulating operations to further reduce the possibility of accidents. The offshore oil and gas industry likewise continues to invest in  people, processes, systems, and technologies to achieve this goal. Working together with industry, we are continuing to provide safe and environmentally sound offshore hydrocarbons resource management.

Technological improvements within the industry are helping to gain access to ever more oil and gas reservoirs from existing facilities. This is especially important offshore California, where concerns about the visual effects and environmental risks associated with offshore facilities are paramount. Advances in extended-reach drilling and completion technology increasingly provide access to oil and gas reserves without installing additional platforms. One example is found in the Santa Ynez Unit off Santa Barbara County. ExxonMobil has drilled 12 extended-reach wells into their Sacate field in the Santa Ynez Unit from existing Platform Heritage, over 4 miles away. The Sacate wells hold the distinction of having the greatest measured depth (over 24,500 feet for SA-002) and longest horizontal distance from surface location to total depth of any offshore well in the Pacific Region. Several more wells are planned as part of this project.

This same technology is key to a proposed project in the Rocky Point Field off Point Conception in northern Santa Barbara County. Extended-reach wells from two existing platforms in Pt. Arguello Unit are scheduled to tap oil and gas resources this field. These advances in extended-reach technology add incremental production with minimum additional risk to the environment and other ocean uses in the area.

The Pacific OCS Region takes pride in its role in providing needed oil and gas resources for the American people. At the national level, the MMS is also considering alternative sources of energy, like harnessing energy from offshore wind, ocean currents and extracting natural gas from deepwater methane hydrates. The Pacific Region will continue to manage federal oil and gas resources responsibly and in a manner that is responsive to the public's concerns.

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