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This report has been compiled to update and summarize the geological information concerning the area of the Atlantic continental margin off the U.S. Mid-Atlantic proposed for Oil and Gas Lease Sale No. 59 (fig. 1). The region of interest lies between 35° and 41° N and 70.5° and 76° W. The north-south dimension is about 660 km (356 nautical miles, 410 statute miles) and the maximum east-west dimension is approximately 250 km (135 nautical miles, 155 statute miles). The area is centered toward the outer Continental Shelf off Delaware and contains more than 154,000 km2 (38,000,000 acres) off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Water depths within the region range from 20 to slightly more than 4,000 m (fig. 1). This report begins with a discussion of the regional geology and geophysics, followed by a description of the oil and gas potential and potential environmental hazards.
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Starting in mid 1976 and continuing into 1977 a variety of geological studies were carried out by the U. S. Geological Survey on the southeastern U. S. Atlantic Continental Margin to assess conditions and hazards that might cause or distribute oil spills or other pollutants, or constrain petroleum exploration or development of the area. These detailed investigations were requested and funded by the Bureau of Land Management to carry out its responsibility under the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act of 1969. Because of the energy crisis the decision had been made to lease on the southeastern continental shelf. A variety of studies had to be mounted quickly for input into decisions concerning the environment that would affect or constrain which lease tracks would be offered. The first lease sale, Lease Sale 43, took place in March 1978, and the environmental information on which this lease sale was based came in part from this initial effort and in part from a wide variety of pertinent data assembled from the literature by the Bureau of Land Management's Environmental Assessment Division. The compilation of relevant data for the Environmental Impact Statement for Lease Sale 43 also pointed up deficiencies in environmental knowledge in a number of areas. The Bureau of Land Management's environmental program for the Southeast Atlantic OCS was initiated to fill gaps in the environmental data base and to detect and assess impacts from oil and gas exploration and production.
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Outer continental shelf (OCS) activity in the Mid-Atlantic Region to date has been limited to exploratory drilling. The first rig began drilling in March 1978. More rigs quickly moved into the Region, and as many as nine were working at the same time for a brief period in January 1979. As of November 1979, nineteen exploratory wells and two stratigraphic test wells had been drilled by the oil companies. One of these test wells and three exploratory wells have had shows of natural gas, but none of the oil companies has yet announced that it has found enough gas to go forward with plans for production. Because of the somewhat disappointing results so far, exploratory drilling has declined. Only one company is currently operating a rig, and one other company has announced plans to begin drilling this winter. The most recent risked estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey of undiscovered, economically recoverable oil and gas resources in the Mid-Atlantic tracts currently under lease are 8 million barrels of oil and 860 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The resource estimate for oil does not represent a commercially producible quantity. On the basis of the geologic information gained from wells completed to date and the huge capital costs of building a pipeline to bring the gas ashore, the natural gas estimate for currently leased tracts in the Mid-Atlantic Region appears to be short of a commercially producible amount. To date, onshore impacts resulting from OCS exploration consist of two support bases: a helicopter base in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from which crews are flown out to the drilling rigs; and a support base in Davisville, Rhode Island, from which equipment and supplies are ferried out to the rigs by boat. It is expected that exploratory activity will remain close to present levels for at least the next six months; consequently, support activity at Davisville and Atlantic City for Mid-Atlantic OCS operations during the same period is expected to correspond to current levels.
This report reviews geological, geophysical and technological data that are pertinent to proposed OCS Lease Sale 68. Under consideration are 26,000 mi 2 (67,400 km 2 ) of the California Continental Borderland north of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. The area includes both leased and unleased tracts and lies adjacent to the highly productive coastal basins of southern California. Factors that have contributed to petroleum generation in the onshore basins, such as thickness, burial depth and hydrocarbon content, are less favorable in parts of the offshore region. Nevertheless, regional geologic and geophysical mapping together with data from stratigraphic test wells and bottom samples suggest that source beds, reservoir rocks and traps are present beneath the borderland. Strata of Miocene age are widespread within the area of proposed OCS Lease Sale 68 and contain fair to excellent potential source rocks. Eocene and early Miocene sandstone beds in the Cortes Bank test well and late Miocene and Pliocene rocks in the Point Conception test well have porosities that are within the range of good reservoir rocks. Late middle Miocene through Pliocene sandy turbidites of reservoir quality possibly occur in some outer borderland basins. Additional prospective targets are fractured Miocene shale beds that may be present in the deeper basins and on the down-flank margins of major uplifts. Numerous structural and stratigraphic traps, which formed in response to late Cenozoic wrench tectonics, are distributed throughout the borderland.
This report reviews geological, geophysical and technological data pertinent to proposed Lease Sale 73. Under consideration is the entire continental margin of California that is bounded on the west by the 2500 meter isobath. This area encompasses the whole of the southern California Borderland, the continental shelves of central and northern California, and the upper part of the continental slope from Mexico on the south to Oregon on the north. The area includes both leased and unleased tracts and lies adjacent to highly productive coastal basins of central and northern California . Because the geology of the south and north parts of this large area differ, they are considered separately in this report.
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Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas exploration and development have been under way in the Pacific (Southern California) Region since 1966. During that time, there have been four Federal lease sales: in 1966, 1968, 1975 (Sale 35), and 1979 (Sale 48). Oil and gas production from three leases has been going on since 1968. It peaked in 1971 and now averages around 31,400 barrels of oil and 15.4 million cubic feet of gas per day. Discoveries on areas leased in the 1968 and 1975 sales have led to plans for eight new platforms to begin production in the early 1980's. Five platforms are in the eastern end of Santa Barbara Channel, one is in the western Channel, and two are in San Pedro Bay, south of Long Beach. Three rigs are doing exploratory drilling in the Region. The most recent estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey of remaining reserves for all identified fields in the Southern California Region are 695 million barrels of oil and 1,575 billion cubic feet of gas (January 1979). The USGS has also made risked estimates of economically recoverable oil and gas resources for all the leased tracts in the Region (March 1980). These risked estimates of economically recoverable resources are 394 billion barrels of oil and 1,295 billion cubic feet of gas. The USGS estimates of undiscovered recoverable resources for the entire Southern California OCS Region (January 1980) are 3,200 million barrels of oil and 3,400 billion cubic feet of gas. Because of the long history of oil and gas production in Southern California from wells onshore and in State waters, there are many existing facilities for the transportation, processing, and refining of oil and gas. Some of the expected new OCS production can be accommodated in these facilities. Four new onshore projects will be required. Two of these are under construction: (1) a 9.6-km (6-mi) onshore oil pipeline (capacity: 60,000 bpd) between Carpinteria (Santa Barbara County) and the existing Mobil-Rincon separation and treatment facility (Ventura County), and (2) a small supply base and dock (upgrade of existing facility) and a 0.4-hectare (1-acre) crude oil distribution facility in Long Beach (Los Angeles County), connected to landfall by a 3-km (1.8-mi) onshore pipeline. The two other facilities are awaiting permit approval: (1) a gas treatment plant at Las Flores Canyon (Santa Barbara County) and (2) a separation and treatment plant at Mandalay Beach (Ventura County) with 4 km (2.5 mi) of onshore pipeline on the same right-of-way from landfall to the plant and from the plant to an existing gas transmission line.
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The level of activity of oil and gas exploration on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has remained constant, with two drilling rigs operating during the period from June through December 1980. Gas flows in two wells were announced in November, but neither has been shown to be commercial at this time. A third lease sale in the Mid-Atlantic Region, Lease Sale 59, is scheduled to be held in December 1981. The proposed sale area is in deeper water, seaward of existing leased tracts. Recent drilling results and preliminary geophysical investigations indicate a greater potential for resources in this area than in the two earlier lease sale areas on the Mid-Atlantic OCS. Onshore impacts from OCS exploration during this period have remained minimal at the two support bases serving the Mid-Atlantic Region.
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