ExxonMobil/POPCO Las Flores Canyon Facility

 production, oil and gas industry

An ongoing project consisting of three offshore platforms (Hondo, Harmony and Heritage) that produce oil and gas from the Hondo, Pescado and Sacate fields. Pipelines are used to transport oil and gas produced offshore to onshore processing facilities. These facilities use the processed natural gas onsite to generate electricity and steam for use onsite. The processed crude oil is pumped into the All American Pipeline Coastal Line.

The Pacific Offshore Pipeline Company (POPCO) constructed the Las Flores Canyon Gas Processing Facility in 1982 and operations began in 1983. The POPCO facility originally had a capacity for processing 30 million cubic feet of natural gas produced offshore from Exxon's Platform Hondo. The processed natural gas was sold to the Southern California Gas Company, and raw natural gas liquids (NGL) were transported via highway to NGL handling facilities in Kern County for processing into propane, isobutane, butane, and heavier products.

During the first 14 years of production from Platform Hondo (before construction of the onshore oil processing facilities) Exxon sent its oil to a nearby Oil Storage & Treating (OS&T) Vessel for processing and then loaded the oil onto a marine tanker for shipment to refineries. The OS&T was a converted oil tanker that operated from 1981 to 1994 and was moored approximately 3.5 miles from shore. Exxon subsequently obtained approval to process its oil onshore in Las Flores Canyon. Upon activating its new onshore facility, Exxon decommissioned its OS&T and Single Anchor Leg Mooring ( SALM) in 1995.

POPCO expanded the facility's processing capacity to 60-75 million cubic feet of natural gas in 1998 following permit approval for the expansion in 1994, then sold its its gas processing facility to ExxonMobil in 1998.

www.countyofsb.org/energy/projects/exxon.asp