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California could edge out Texas in oil production
Fuel Fix ^ | December 19, 2012 | Loren Steffy

Posted on 12/19/2012 12:31:54 PM PST by thackney

It may be the biggest insult since salsa made in New York City. Texas, long the nation’s oil capital, could get upstaged by California.

That’s right, California. Enron’s prey-ground. Cap-and-trade fantasyland. Home of fossil-fuel-hating, electric-car-driving, green-dreamers.

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management sold 15 leases for about 18,000 acres in California’s Monterey Shale, which stretches 200 miles south from San Francisco. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the shale formation could hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil, which would be double the combined reserves of the Bakken formation in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas, Bloomberg News reports.

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum snapped up most of the leases sold at the auction, and California lawmakers have drafted new rules to deal with a boom in hydraulic fracturing.

So far, Texas still has the edge in terms of jobs. A recent report by IHS Global found almost half of the country’s nearly 1.3 million energy industry jobs were in Texas, and predicts the number will continue to rise. Oil and natural gas activity in Texas is expected to generate $22 billion in federal, state and local revenue this year.

Those numbers aren’t lost on California, a state battered by budget shortfalls, underfunded public pensions and an unemployment rate of more than 10 percent, the nation’s highest.

Increased production from California will add to U.S. oil output that is already growing a record, hitting its highest level in 15 years, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Energy . Domestic production will top 6.4 million barrels a day this year, a 14 percent increase from last year and the biggest annual gain since the first commercial well was drilled in western Pennsylvania in 1859.

All of which is good for the country and good for the oil industry, as long as they don’t start calling it California Tea.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: armandhammer; california; energy; hammer; montereyshale; occidental; occidentalpetroleum; oil; oxy; oxyoil; shale; texas

1 posted on 12/19/2012 12:32:03 PM PST by thackney
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To: thackney

Holding a lease is a reality even in CA. Drilling on that lease is a whole different story. It will be a boon for the enviro’s and their lawyers though. I just can’t see the people in CA allowing new drilling.

I hope for the best anyway.


2 posted on 12/19/2012 12:40:45 PM PST by fudimo
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To: thackney

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum snapped up most of the leases sold at the auction, and California lawmakers have drafted new rules to deal with a boom in hydraulic fracturing.

Could it just be a coincidence that Obama would give this lease billions of barrels of oil to Occidental Petroleum which likely has significant ties to Occidental College, the college that has thus far refused release Obama’s academic records?


3 posted on 12/19/2012 12:41:27 PM PST by OKRA2012
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To: OKRA2012
Occidental Petroleum which likely has significant ties to Occidental College

Did you make that leap by the name only?

Occidental College was started in 1887 by a group of Presbyterians.

4 posted on 12/19/2012 12:46:14 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: fudimo
Holding a lease is a reality even in CA. Drilling on that lease is a whole different story.

Money may trump here. Canada has plenty of enviros, and their baseline is more enviro. Yet, they drill, drill, drill. Ontario doesn't stop them. Quebec doesn't stop them. Money (for your friends) trumps all.
5 posted on 12/19/2012 12:46:42 PM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: OKRA2012
Occidental Petroleum which likely has significant ties to Occidental College,

What 'significant ties' are there between Occidental College and Occidental Petroleum?

6 posted on 12/19/2012 12:47:11 PM PST by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: Lurking Libertarian
What 'significant ties' are there between Occidental College and Occidental Petroleum?

Morton Downey Jr: But do they deny there are ties?

7 posted on 12/19/2012 12:54:32 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

How is Morton Downey Jr connected to either one?


8 posted on 12/19/2012 12:59:58 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

Al Gore and Occidental:

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/Columbia/Gore+Oxy.html


9 posted on 12/19/2012 1:00:28 PM PST by gaijin
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To: gaijin

The Gore family used to own Occidental Petroleum stock.

What is the connection to Occidental College?


10 posted on 12/19/2012 1:13:17 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

What is this guy smoking? Moonbeam Maryjane?

California now produces less than North Dakota. And he thinks they can pass Texas??

Occidental cant get new field permits in the state and those new appointees - really last year’s story - havent helped.


11 posted on 12/19/2012 1:45:03 PM PST by RossA
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To: thackney

“How is Morton Downey Jr connected to either one?”

I was being facetious by channeling the guy’s style of questioning.


12 posted on 12/19/2012 2:10:46 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: thackney
based on the assumption that the green-fags out there will let them get it out of the ground...
13 posted on 12/19/2012 3:12:29 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: thackney; Chode

Occidental’s owner is the late Armand Hammer, Soviet Oil Maverick. His heirs, anyway.


14 posted on 12/19/2012 3:17:47 PM PST by txhurl (Zero on America: Drive it like you stole it)
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To: txhurl
maybe he's got some pull with the cali-commies then...
15 posted on 12/19/2012 3:34:13 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: txhurl

So how are the heirs of Armand Hammer connected to Occidental College?


16 posted on 12/20/2012 5:18:48 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

Difference is that you can drill in Texas. In California, you can spend years chasing permits as they keep moving the goal posts.


17 posted on 12/22/2012 8:59:57 AM PST by PAR35
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