About
the Pacific OCS Region
Emergency Information Hotline
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.
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Nollie Gildow-Owens
Page content last updated 08/03/2006
Page last published 08/03/2006 |