One Step Forward, Two Steps Back in the CA Oil Business

For a state with so many natural resources, which could, if it wanted to, be its own pretty decent sized, independent, self-sufficient kingdom, damn do they have some stupidly obstinate ideologues.

I know, I know – I can hear you guys from here.

DUH, BEEGE

It never ceases to amaze me how so few hysterical lunatics maintain a tyrannical, despotic hold on the vast majority of CA citizens, who pay good money, often painfully, for the questionable privilege of living in the formerly Golden State.

Case in point is something I learned today.

Now, I’ve written extensively about how oleaginous Gov Gavin Newsom and the legislature, often aided and abetted by rapacious local town councils, have been waging war on the state’s once mighty fossil fuel industry.

After 154 years headquartered in the state, Chevron left for Texas at the beginning of this year. There is already discussion of CARB regulation to end oil extraction in the state by 2045. To combat high gas prices (!). Newsom and toadies are looking at taking state control of the existing refineries, which, at the rate refineries are shutting down, shouldn’t leave them with much to do.

All of this is the face of potentially astronomical gas prices due to, first, the oil squeeze, and now drastically reduced refining capacity.

Gas prices in California could reach more than $8 per gallon by the end of 2026, marking a potential 75% increase over current rates, according to a new report. 

The study, led by Michael A. Mische of USC’s Marshall School of Business, projects that regular gasoline could cost between $7.35 and $8.43 per gallon — up from the statewide average of $4.82 as of April 23, 2025. While the exact price point depends on market variables, Mische says there is a clear trend: “The models all indicate the same thing — the price of gas is going up.”

A major contributor to the projected price spike is the scheduled closure of two key oil refineries: Phillips 66 in Los Angeles and Valero in Benicia.

According to the report, these closures would reduce California’s refining capacity by 21% over the next three years, potentially removing 6.6 million to 13.1 million gallons of gasoline per day from the state’s fuel supply. California currently consumes over 13.1 million gallons of gasoline daily, while producing less than 24% of its crude oil needs.

“We’re not going to see a 20% drop in demand to match that reduction,” Mische said. “That creates a significant supply shortfall.”

For the record, the unctuous governor, who’s done so well managing the state so far and making life intolerable for his citizens (but pretty damn schweet for non-citizens) has called Professor Mische an oil industry tool.

USC Professor’s Response to Gov. Newsom’s Allegations, Claims and Assertions on Gas Price Escalations.

Professor Mische received a very nasty smear from Governor Newsom.@CaliforniaGlobe https://t.co/A0SHhOnXRp pic.twitter.com/9c5SW1btYS

— California Globe (@CaliforniaGlobe) May 21, 2025

In any event, it would seemingly take a miracle to convince an oil company to do anything positive in CA other than beef up the armor on their loins, right?

Well, there was a bright spot of news the day before yesterday. The first of three oil rigs offshore of Santa Ynez, which were shut down ten years ago because of a corroded pipeline rupturing, are back in business, pumping crude.

This is akin to seeing a tyrannosaur wander down Wilshire Blvd, and once would have been thought as improbable.

California’s first of three offshore platforms back in oil production business after 10 years

Sable Offshore, as the owner of a pipeline that will transport hydrocarbons produced at three offshore platforms linked to it, has resumed production at the Santa Ynez Unit’s first of three platforms, where production was shut down in May 2015, when a corroded onshore pipeline ruptured and released around 450,000 gallons (1,703.44 cubic meters) of oil near Refugio State Beach north of Santa Barbara.

On May 15, 2025, the U.S. company initiated the flow of oil production from six wells on the Harmony platform of the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) to Las Flores Canyon (LFC) at a rate of around 6,000 barrels of oil per day. Before this, the firm tested wells on the platform throughout May 2025, which performed consistently stronger than at the shut-in on May 19, 2015, when the SYU produced approximately 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Furthermore, about 30% of the 32 producing wells at the platform have been tested as of May 18, 2025, with the remaining wells projected to be tested over the next several days. Sable expects to initiate production from the additional 44 wells on the Heritage platform and the additional 26 wells on the Hondo platform in July 2025 and August 2025, respectively.

Sable anticipates having the other platforms come online this summer.

Like…wow.

How critical is it for oil production to get these back online?

There are only three other platforms left in the entire state in operation, and the state’s planning on killing all of them off in any event..

…California, which has three remaining oil platforms in operation off the coast of Orange County – Eva, Emmy, and Ester – constructed between 1963 and 1985, is setting the stage to reach net-zero carbon emissions and 100% clean electricity by 2045.

As to my earlier comment about the stupidly obstinate ideologues who have this mesmerizing hold over the state’s infrastructure to the point of returning it to the 18th century?

It refers to the climate cultists and their NGO enablers who got wind that Sable has filed intent to do this – were upgrading the platforms and making the repairs, etc. In the face of gas shortages and insane prices, these foaming-at-the-mouth activists filed a lawsuit a month ago, to shut the whole project down before it even started.

…Sable is attempting to restart the project, but the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and environmental activists claim this is being done under outdated plans, originally approved in the 1970s and 1980s.

As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has not requested a revision or supplementation of the plans to address the perils of restarting production and did not respond to a notice identifying the violation, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

This legal step has been made in Federal District Court in Los Angeles to take the Trump administration to court over the so-called federal failure to require updated development and production plans for oil drilling at the Santa Ynez unit offshore California.

Kristen Monsell, Oceans Legal Director at Center for Biological Diversity, commented: “I’m appalled that Trump officials would even consider allowing these offshore oil platforms to come back from the dead under plans approved decades ago. Any potentially dangerous infrastructure, especially if it hasn’t been used in a decade, should get close scrutiny, but that’s not happening here.

All this is in line with the monster climate lawsuit CA filed against the six big companies still hanging in the air.

…With this in mind, Governor Gavin Newsom threw his support behind a lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in 2023 against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The legal challenge was set in motion over the six players’ alleged role in minimizing and giving little weight to the potential threats the development and extraction of fossil fuels pose to the climate and the environment.

Good on Sable for going boldly where no one in their right mind would.

What a shame the CA loons always, ALWAYS hold true to form even as things circle the drain.