Coastal & Ocean

Authoritative California State Lands Commission data along with updated databases of planning documents, datasets from a variety of organizations, and widgets for exploring underlying data.

The polygons in this layer show the position of Offshore Oil Leases as documented by former State Lands Senior Boundary Determination Officer, Cris N. Perez and as reviewed and updated by GIS and Boundary staff.

Background:

This layer represents active offshore oil and gas agreements in California waters, which are what remain of the more than 60 originally issued. These leases were issued prior to the catastrophic 1969 oil spill from Platform A in federal waters off Santa Barbara County, and some predate the formation of the Commission. Between 2010 and 2014, the bulk of the approximately $300 million generated annually for the state's General Fund from oil and gas agreements was from these offshore leases.

In 1921, the Legislature created the first tidelands oil and gas leasing program. Between 1921 and 1929, approximately 100 permits and leases were issued and over 850 wells were drilled in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. In 1929, the Legislature prohibited any new leases or permits. In 1933, however, the prohibition was partially lifted in response to an alleged theft of tidelands oil in Huntington Beach. It wasn't until 1938, and again in 1955, that the Legislature would allow new offshore oil and gas leasing. Except for limited circumstances, the Legislature has consistently placed limits on the areas that the Commission may offer for lease and in 1994, placed the entirety of California's coast off-limits to new oil and gas leases.

Layer Creation Process:

In 1997 Cris N. Perez, Senior Boundary Determination Officer of the Southern California Section of the State Lands Division, prepared a report on the Commission’s Offshore Oil Leases to:

A. Show the position of Offshore Oil Leases.

B. Produce a hard copy of 1927 NAD Coordinates for each lease.

C. Discuss any problems evident after plotting the leases.

Below are some of the details Cris included in the report:

I have plotted the leases that were supplied to me by the Long Beach Office and computed 1927 NAD California Coordinates for each one. Where the Mean High Tide Line (MHTL) was called for and not described in the deed, I have plotted the California State Lands Commission CB Map Coordinates, from the actual field surveys of the Mean High Water Line and referenced them wherever used.

Where the MHTL was called for and not described in the deed and no California State Lands Coordinates were available, I digitized the maps entitled, “Map of the Offshore Ownership Boundary of the State of California Drawn pursuant to the Supplemental Decree of the U.S. Supreme Court in the U.S. V. California, 382 U.S. 448 (1966), Scale 1:10000 Sheets 1-161.” The shore line depicted on these maps is the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) Line as shown on the Hydrographic or Topographic Sheets for the coastline. If a better fit is needed, a field survey to position this line will need to be done.

The coordinates listed in Cris’ report were retrieved through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and used to produce GIS polygons using Esri ArcGIS software. Coordinates were checked after the OCR process when producing the polygons in ArcMap to ensure accuracy. Original Coordinate systems (NAD 1927 California State Plane Zones 5 and 6) were used initially, with each zone being reprojected to NAD 83 Teale Albers Meters and merged after the review process.

While Cris’ expertise and documentation were relied upon to produce this GIS Layer, certain polygons were reviewed further for any potential updates since Cris’ document and for any unusual geometry. Boundary Determination Officers addressed these issues and plotted leases currently listed as active, but not originally in Cris’ report.

On December 24, 2014, the SLA boundary offshore of California was fixed (permanently immobilized) by a decree issued by the U.S. Supreme Court United States v. California, 135 S. Ct. 563 (2014). Offshore leases were clipped so as not to exceed the limits of this fixed boundary.

Lease Notes:

PRC 1482

The “lease area” for this lease is based on the Compensatory Royalty Agreement dated 1-21-1955 as found on the CSLC Insider. The document spells out the distinction between “leased lands” and “state lands”. The leased lands are between two private companies and the agreement only makes a claim to the State’s interest as those lands as identified and surveyed per the map Tract 893, Bk 27 Pg 24. The map shows the State’s interest as being confined to the meanders of three sloughs, one of which is severed from the bay (Anaheim) by a Tideland sale. It should be noted that the actual sovereign tide and or submerged lands for this area is all those historic tide and submerged lands minus and valid tide land sales patents. The three parcels identified were also compared to what the Orange County GIS land records system has for their parcels. Shapefiles were downloaded from that site as well as two centerline monuments for 2 roads covered by the Tract 893. It corresponded well, so their GIS linework was held and clipped or extended to make a parcel.

MJF Boundary Determination Officer 12/19/16

PRC 3455

The “lease area” for this lease is based on the Tract No. 2 Agreement, Long Beach Unit, Wilmington Oil Field, CA dated 4/01/1965 and found on the CSLC insider (also recorded March 12, 1965 in Book M 1799, Page 801).

Unit Operating Agreement, Long Beach Unit recorded March 12, 1965 in Book M 1799 page 599.

“City’s Portion of the Offshore Area” shall mean the undeveloped portion of the Long Beach tidelands as defined in Section 1(f) of Chapter 138, and includes Tract No. 1”

“State’s Portion of the Offshore Area” shall mean that portion of the Alamitos Beach Park Lands, as defined in Chapter 138, included within the Unit Area and includes Tract No. 2.”

“Alamitos Beach Park Lands” means those tidelands and submerged lands, whether filled or unfilled, described in that certain Judgment After Remittitur in The People of the State of California v. City of Long Beach, Case No. 683824 in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, dated May 8, 1962, and entered on May 15, 1962 in Judgment Book 4481, at Page 76, of the Official Records of the above entitled court”

*The description for Tract 2 has an EXCEPTING (statement) “therefrom that portion lying Southerly of the Southerly line of the Boundary of Subsidence Area, as shown on Long Beach Harbor Department {LBHD} Drawing No. D-98. This map could not be found in records nor via a PRA request to the LBHD directly. Some maps were located that show the extents of subsidence in this area being approximately 700 feet waterward of the MHTL as determined by SCC 683824. Although the “EXCEPTING” statement appears to exclude most of what would seem like the offshore area (out to 3 nautical miles from the MHTL which is different than the actual CA offshore boundary measured from MLLW) the 1964, ch 138 grant (pg25) seems to reference the lands lying seaward of that MHTL and ”westerly of the easterly boundary of the undeveloped portion of the Long Beach tidelands, the latter of which is the same boundary (NW) of tract 2. This appears to then indicate that the “EXCEPTING” area is not part of the Lands Granted to City of Long Beach and appears to indicate that this portion might be then the “State’s Portion of the Offshore Area” as referenced in the Grant and the Unit Operating Agreement. Section “f” in the CSLC insider document (pg 9) defines the Contract Lands: means Tract No. 2 as described in Exhibit “A” to the Unit Agreement, and as shown on Exhibit “B” to the Unit Agreement, together with all other lands within the State’s Portion of the Offshore Area.

Linework has been plotted in accordance with the methods used to produce this layer, with record lines rotated to those as listed in the descriptions. The main boundaries being the MHTL(north/northeast) that appears to be fixed for most of the area (projected to the city boundary on the east/southeast); 3 nautical miles from said MHTL on the south/southwest; and the prolongation of the NWly line of Block 50 of Alamitos Bay Tract.

MJF Boundary Determination Officer 12-27-16

PRC 4736

The “lease area” for this lease is based on the Oil and Gas Lease and Agreement as found on the CSLC insider and recorded August 17, 1973 in BK 10855 PG 432 Official Records, Orange County.

The State’s Mineral Interests are confined to Parcels “B-1” and “B-2” and are referred to as “State Mineral Lands” comprising 70.00 Acres.

The lessee each has a right to certain uses including but not limited to usage of utility corridors, 110 foot radius parcels surrounding well-sites and roads. The State also has access to those same roads per this agreement/lease. Those uses are allowed in what are termed “State Lands”-Parcel E and “Leased Lands” which are defined as the “South Bolsa Lease Area”-Parcel C (2 parcels) and “North Bolsa Lease Area”-Parcel D. The “State Lands”-Parcel E are actually 3 parcels, 2 of which are within road right-of-ways.

MJF Boundary Determination Officer 12-28-16

The State Lands Commission has prepared the Significant Lands Inventory (report) for the California Legislature as a general identification and classification of those unconveyed State school lands and tide and submerged lands which possess significant environmental values. The publication incorporates evaluated and pertinent comments received on the initial draft report which was circulated statewide in February 1975.

The absence of a particular digitized waterway in the dataset does not mean that the State does not claim ownership of that parcel or waterway, or that such specific parcel or waterway has no significant environmental values. This dataset is not intended to establish ownership, only to identify those parcels which possess significant environmental values. Staff was unable to physically inventory all of the considered lands; instead, the advice and participation of those with known enviornmental expertise was utilized as additional to staff survey.

• Tide and submerged lands are digitized in the WaterBody and WaterLine feature classes; WaterLines for coastal areas, WaterBody for inland areas. Tide and submerged lands under the jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission are those sovereign lands received from the Federal Government by virtue of California's admission to the Union on an equal footing with the original States. Such lands, and State interest therein, are generally the lands waterward of the ordinary high water mark of the Pacific Ocean (seaward to a three-mile limit); tidal bays, sloughs, estuaries; and, navigable lakes and streams within the State.
• School Lands are digitized in the SchoolLand feature class. State school lands under the jurisdiction of the Commission are largely composed of the 16th and 36th sections of each township. The Federal Government transferred these lands to the State in 1853, in order to establish a financial foundation for a public school system. In cases where the 16th and 36th sections were mineral in character, incomplete as to acreage total, or already claimed or granted by the Federal Government, the State was permitted to select other lands "in lieu" of the specific sections.

The public trust of commerce, navigation and fisheries which the State retains on patented sovereign lands should also be considered included in this inventory. Wherever a waterway, or body of water, is listed or mapped, the common trust state interest in patented sovereign lands, if any, is also included.

The State Lands Commission emphasized when it adopted this report at its December 1, 1975 meeting that all tide and submerged lands are significant by the nature of their public ownership. Only because of the methodology used for this report are all of these waterways not specifically listed in this inventory.

It is the intent of the State Lands Commission that the Significant Lands Inventory be periodically updated. This dataset should be considered informational, to assist the Legislature, the Commission, and the public in considering the environmental aspects of a proposed project and the significant values to be protected therein.

The State Lands Commission has prepared the Significant Lands Inventory (report) for the California Legislature as a general identification and classification of those unconveyed State school lands and tide and submerged lands which possess significant environmental values. The publication incorporates evaluated and pertinent comments received on the initial draft report which was circulated statewide in February 1975.

The absence of a particular digitized waterway in the dataset does not mean that the State does not claim ownership of that parcel or waterway, or that such specific parcel or waterway has no significant environmental values. This dataset is not intended to establish ownership, only to identify those parcels which possess significant environmental values. Staff was unable to physically inventory all of the considered lands; instead, the advice and participation of those with known environmental expertise was utilized as additional to staff survey.

• Tide and submerged lands are digitized in the WaterBody and WaterLine feature classes; WaterLines for coastal areas, WaterBody for inland areas. Tide and submerged lands under the jurisdiction of the State Lands Commission are those sovereign lands received from the Federal Government by virtue of California's admission to the Union on an equal footing with the original States. Such lands, and State interest therein, are generally the lands waterward of the ordinary high water mark of the Pacific Ocean (seaward to a three-mile limit); tidal bays, sloughs, estuaries; and, navigable lakes and streams within the State.

• School Lands are digitized in the SchoolLand feature class. State school lands under the jurisdiction of the Commission are largely composed of the 16th and 36th sections of each township. The Federal Government transferred these lands to the State in 1853, in order to establish a financial foundation for a public school system. In cases where the 16th and 36th sections were mineral in character, incomplete as to acreage total, or already claimed or granted by the Federal Government, the State was permitted to select other lands "in lieu" of the specific sections.

The public trust of commerce, navigation and fisheries which the State retains on patented sovereign lands should also be considered included in this inventory. Wherever a waterway, or body of water, is listed or mapped, the common trust state interest in patented sovereign lands, if any, is also included.

The State Lands Commission emphasized when it adopted this report at its December 1, 1975 meeting that all tide and submerged lands are significant by the nature of their public ownership. Only because of the methodology used for this report are all of these waterways not specifically listed in this inventory.

It is the intent of the State Lands Commission that the Significant Lands Inventory be periodically updated. This dataset should be considered informational, to assist the Legislature, the Commission, and the public in considering the environmental aspects of a proposed project and the significant values to be protected therein.