Coastal Resources and Natural Gas

Crude oil is not the only valuable product that is derived from offshore production wells. Clean-burning natural gas is a major product of the state’s offshore industry.

• Natural gas is a fossil fuel frequently found in the same or nearby underground deposits as crude oil.

• In 2002, a total of 371 billion cubic feet of natural gas was produced in California and 14 percent of that, or 52.5 billion cubic feet came from offshore platforms.

• California’s total 2002 in-state natural gas production accounted for 17% of California’s consumption. 28.2% came from Canada, 11.4% from the Rockies and 43.4% from the Southwestern U.S.

• California’s natural gas production has increased 8.7 percent from 1998; however, our use of it to produce electricity, heat our homes, operate stoves, warm ovens, power industrial facilities and, increasingly to fuel buses and other vehicles continues to increase, creating more challenges for California to become self-sufficient with our energy needs .

• More than one trillion cubic feet of gas have been produced from offshore platforms in federal waters and 1.6 trillion cubic feet from state waters.

• At least one offshore platform, Habitat, off the coast at Carpinteria, produces almost nothing but natural gas.

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