Henry,...The Oil & Gas Journal has a brief comment on "Oil also part of Florida's allure" by Alan Petzet, Exploration Editor. the note was published on 2/04/99 9:08am. He says there will be an article to be published in the Feb 8 issue of OGJ.
I am a little surprised that the PR people that CCO uses were not aware of the up coming article. This implies that the article may have been intiated by the Magazine or at least wasn't part of CCO's PR efforts.
Anyway, the article is scheduled for Monday so we will soon see if it has any effect. Hopefully, some of the major financial publications will become aware of the potential for CCO and a favorable Court ruling may get more visibility than has been the case in the past.
Anyway, here's what is in the current issue of OGJ:
From: sysadmin sysadmin (sysadmin@pennwell.com)
Sender: sysadmin sysadmin (sysadmin@pennwell.com)
Date: 2/04/99 9:08am
Message-ID: 251937
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Group: Journally Speaking
Subject: Oil also part of Florida's allure
Content-Length: 2830
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Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor
Florida is a favorite travel destination this time of year. People from many countries, including the U.S., go there to escape colder climes.
It would be fair to say that practically every tourist who brings economic benefit to the state participates in the burning of some form of fossil fuel in order to travel there.
Crude oil is produced in two areas in Florida. A few small fields scattered around Lee, Hendry, and Collier counties produce in the South Florida basin. Several fields have produced in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties in the western panhandle along the Alabama state line. One field, Jay, is a giant that has produced about 400 million bbl of oil and continues to yield more than 3 million bbl/year.
The South Florida basin fields are all onshore, all on the eastern shelf of a basin that extends as far as 150 miles westward into the Gulf of Mexico. One company, the Calumet Florida unit of Plains Resources Inc., Houston, has holdings there but drilled no new wells during 1998.
Florida offshore potential
Florida agencies and environmental groups have actively resisted offshore drilling proposals for many years.
The Gulf of Mexico basin is one of the world's largest producers of hydrocarbons, but Florida has opposed offshore exploration even in federal waters. The nearest offshore platforms are about 300 miles west of Naples.
Coastal Petroleum Co., a tiny independent in Tallahassee, holds a 3-mile-wide band of leases issued by the state years ago. The leases parallel the coast from south of Naples to Franklin County in the Apalachicola region.
Coastal's seismic data show big structures far beneath the sea bottom off St. George Island and on other parts of the acreage. These are the subjects of an article to be published in the Feb. 8 issue of OGJ. Some of the structures indicate potential as large as or larger than Jay field.
The favorable geology extends beyond Coastal's acreage and into federal waters as well. If Coastal were permitted to drill, it would need partners to help it shoulder the economic risk.
New political era
The political prospects for Coastal being allowed to drill may have improved during the past year, but there remains no certainty that drilling will occur.
The company has persisted in attempts to legally convince the state to live up to lease terms and allow drilling, but no permit has been issued. The company has applied for more than a dozen drilling permits.
Florida politics might have become less hostile to drilling with election of a Republican governor and conservative majority in state government.
Coastal hopes that any legal decisions in its cases will apply to all of the permits it has requested.
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