re: Oil and gas folks please explain the whole oil /gas scarcity thing to me

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Freeport McMoran had the go ahead to produce three huge untapped reserves just north of Point Conception in the late 2000's. Then Deep Water Horizon happened and the permits were pulled. Last I heard, Hidalgo, Hermosa and Harvest platforms were pulled and Gaviota OGP was mothballed. California was built on O&G. More oil in L.A. than most people realize. California will not allow new production anytime in the forseeable future.

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I am well aware of past oil production in CA. I even saw the blueprints for the first "pipeline" from Signal Hill to Shell refinery in Wilmington. Initially oil flowed down ditches but after fires kept being ignited, octagon shaped redwood culvert was use to "pipe" it downhill. In 1990, large ponds with nothing but earth still held oil coming into the refinery, the were covered by a redwood frame and planks then asbestos tarpaper. They lost about 10 barrels per day.

I do know that Venoco bought much of Oxy's lease holdings and had hoped that hydraulic fracturing would really boost production. However, the high silica content shale did not respond enough to hydrofluoric acid fracturing to make it economically viable. This after the owner was a Jerry Brown and Obama major bundler to have political sway.