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Pacific Region Federal OCS Decommissioning

Pacific Region Federal OCS Decommissioning

Background and Current Stats

As of March 2023, there are eight (8) offshore facilities (production platforms) in various stages of decommissioning and have had multiple owners and operators. These platforms were installed between 1967 and 1987.

  1. Platform Harvest, Hidalgo and Hermosa: All 46 wells have been abandoned and tested. All 62 conductors have been removed. This stage of activity has been completed.
  2. Platform Grace: Twenty-eight (28) wells have been abandoned and 38 conductors have been removed, ten of which did not contain wells. This stage of activity has been completed.
  3. Platform Gail: Twenty-eight (28) wells have been abandoned and 28 conductors have been removed. This stage of activity has been completed.
  4. Platform Habitat: Well abandonment activities for the 20 shut-in wells are planned to begin by 2024, following preliminary facility and rig modifications and well diagnostics.
  5. Platforms Hogan and Houchin: These platforms are currently being manned, monitored and maintained as part of an agreement between BSEE, BOEM, DOI Solicitors Office, and the three predecessor lessees as they await a decision on the predecessors’ appeal to the IBLA. BSEE estimates an approximately $5 million deficit in financial assurance to decommission 21 orphaned sidetrack wells associated with these platforms.
  6. PEIS Decommissioning: The Draft Programmatic EIS for Decommissioning Activities in the Pacific OCS Region was released in October 2022 with the public comment period ending Jan. 10, 2023. A public final PEIS is planned for October 2023 and record of decision November 2023.

 

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Platform Grace, located several miles off the California coast near Oxnard.