California's Ocean Economy - California Resources Agency - State ...

NOEP
particular, has declined steadily. The offshore oil production on state and federal leases
dropped 7.5%, a decline from 54.2 million barrels produced in 2000 to 50.2 million barrels.
In 2001, offshore production accounted for 17.1% of the total state oil production.
In 2000, California, with 23 million registered automobiles, only produced one-half of the
crude oil that it consumed; the other half was imported from other states or countries.
4.1.2 Geographic Location of Offshore Production
There are eleven sedimentary basins along the coast of California with favorable geologic
structures for accumulation of oil and gas deposits. These basins are the Southern California
Shelf; the San Diego Offshore Area; the Los Angeles Basin; the Santa Barbara-Ventura
Basin; the Santa Maria, the Salinas, the Santa Cruz, the Bodega, the Point Arena, and the Eel
River Basin; and Bear-Mattole Offshore Area. Of these eleven basins, only the Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara-Ventura, and Santa Maria basins have been commercially exploited up to now.
Table 4-6 gives onshore and offshore oil production for all coastal counties of California in
2001. All of the coastal counties produced 30.9 million barrels of onshore oil and 17.0
million barrels of offshore oil. Offshore oil production is confined to Ventura, Santa
Barbara, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. This production represents only state-owned
lands. Los Angeles County alone accounts for approximately 50 percent of total onshore oil
production of coastal counties and approximately 75 percent of the total offshore oil
production for California. While Ventura County is a major onshore oil producer, its
offshore oil production is only about 2 percent of California’s offshore oil production. For
further analysis only Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange counties will be
examined.
50