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Proposed Tranquillon Ridge Oil and Gas Leases
1. PLAINS EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION – TRANQUILLON RIDGE OIL AND GAS LEASES
Plains Exploration and Production Company ("PXP"), as operator of the federal offshore Point Pedernales Field, has applied for two State offshore leases to develop the Tranquillon Ridge Oil Field from federal platform Irene. Under the PXP proposal, the produced oil and gas from the Tranquillon Ridge operations will be sent, via an existing pipeline, to the Lompoc Oil and Gas Plant (LOGP) located just north of Lompoc.
PXP proposes drilling a maximum of 17 new wells (14 producers and 3 utility wells) from federal Platform Irene into State lands, utilizing extended reach drilling technology. Access to State lands will be accomplished solely through underground approach, several thousand feet below the ocean floor. All operations would all cease on or before December 31, 2022.
The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission has certified an EIR and approved the project. That decision has been appealed by ExxonMobil, Sunset, Vaquero Oil, and one private citizen. A date for the Board of Supervisors to consider the appeals has been scheduled for October 7, 2008, in Santa Barbara.
The Commission has the authority (Public Resources Code §6244) to issue a new offshore oil & gas lease in what is currently “sanctuary” (excluded from future development under the California Coastal Sanctuary Act PRC §6240, et seq.). For the Commission to issue a new lease it will have to make a finding of drainage of state oil by wells in the federal lease, and a finding that a lease, or leases, is in the best interest of the State.
An independent third party consultant has performed a drainage and reservoir study to evaluate the potential drainage of State oil and gas resources from the federal operations. Volume I of the report focuses on the potential drainage of State resources by the production of Well A 28 and is publicly available and can be found here.
2. SUNSET/EXXONMOBIL CORP. – “VAHEVALA PROJECT”
ExxonMobil Corporation and Sunset Exploration Company submitted an application to develop the same Tranquillon Ridge offshore resource (named the “Vahevala Project”). They propose to develop the oil and gas resources from an onshore site located on Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB).
The application calls for development of the State’s offshore oil and gas reserves by drilling up to 30 new wells to be produced over a 30 year operational life from a new VAFB drillsite. They will build a processing facility and construct and install 8” gas onshore pipelines from the drillsite to PXP’s LOGP for processing. They will process the oil production at the VAFB site and construct a new 16” oil pipeline connecting to a common carrier sales line.
The applicant is seeking permission from Air Force to use a project site on VAFB, which will be needed prior to the Commission considering the lease.
Volume II of the drainage and reservoir study focuses on the potential drainage of the Tranquillon Ridge resources by the operation of the Point Pedernales field and is available here.