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Home My WebLink About12277 RES - 09/18/1974`: JRR:hb:9 /11/74: 1st A RESOLUTION ADDRESSED TO PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR LEASING OF CORPUS CHRISTI AREA OFFSHORE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS FOR OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION; DECLARING FINDINGS; ENDORSING SUCH LEASING AND PRODUCTION; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. WHEREAS the City Council finds that the Final Environmental Impact Statement of the Department of the Interior, dated March 22, 1974, complies with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 4321 et seq., is correct and proper as it relates to the Corpus Christi area offshore Outer Continental Shelf lands proposed for Depart- mental oil and gas production leasing; and, WHEREAS the City Council finds that said Final Statement contains recent reserve estimates of workable reliability; and, WHEREAS the City Council finds that the proposed leasing involves recreational activity areas of the City's corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction; and, WHEREAS the City Council finds that Harry L. Franklin, Petroleum Superintendent of the City of Corpus Christi and Director and r General Manager of the Corpus Christi Area Oil Spill Control Association, a practicing graduate petroleum engineer of nearly 35 years' experience in oil and gas drilling, development, and production, appraisal and management, including past association with major oil companies, association with DeGolyer and McNaughton, of Dallas, a petroleum engineering con- sulate, independent consulting, and service as chief executive officer of 2 Dallas independent oil companies, during the course of which a great deal of his work related to, and does now relate to, development and producing practices on water - located sites, has carefully studied the proposed Interior leasing program relative to the Corpus Christi area, and reports to this Council his following findings.and recommendations thereon, which are hereby adopted by the Council as its findings: 1. Nearly 220 square miles of Coastal waterside within the City limits and contain 333 operating wells, of which there are 94 producing oil wells, 107 producing gas wells, and the remainder are shut - in or awaiting plugging and abandonment. 12277 2. As new, deep gas finds occurred in Corpus Christi Bay in 1962 and 1964 the City adopted a regulatory Bay Drilling Ordinance (having for several prior years regulated in -city oil and gas operations by a companion Land Drilling Ordinance) in December 21, 1966 and the City advisory agency, the Bay Drilling Committee, remains very active with the Petroleum Superintendent in monitoring Corpus Christi coastal waters mineral activity, frequently reporting to the City Council. 3. Not one single drilling incident or upset has occurred in the bays of Corpus Christi during the past 8 years which could remotely be considered as damaging to the ecology and environment of these bays. 4. From 1966 the Petroleum Superintendent has processed 36 Bay areas drilling applications, resulting in 33 wells drilled and 3 locations awaiting rig and has consistently regulated the bay waters production - operations practices of 22 oil companies. 5. Bay waters older well depth range 4 -7,000 feet; more recent Bay gas drilling has required depths beyond 13,000 feet. Production limits of major Bay fields are now well defined. 6. Older Bay area fields are nearing their economic limit. The decline in production during the same period is more dramatic than the decline in the number of producing wells. Local declines compare closely to the 417 decline in oil production of the 15 southernmost counties of South Texas. 7. The declines have adversely affected this area's economy. We should expect continued deterioration of industry activity in the area unless new major or sizeable reservoirs are discovered. 8. Our greatest opportunities for major oil and gas dis- coveries lie offshore in the Gulf of Mexico under State and Federal waters. 9. Exploration of such possible accumulations should be permitted, encouraged, and realized; and WHEREAS the City Council finds that the proposed leasing will not adversely affect or significantly affect the quality of the human environment, including but not limited to either as to present or fore- seeable recreational uses, the preservation of the natural beauty of -2- Corpus Christi and environs seascape, or the health or safety of the inhabitants of the area; and WHEREAS the City Council particularly finds that dangers from pipeline construction, offshore platform construction, oil spills and other actions are, at worst, negligible risks as to these leases, demonstrably subject to effective prevention and rapid control of high, proved efficiency by the Corpus Christi Area Oil Spill Control Association; and WHEREAS the City Council finds it is clearly in the public interest that oil and gas reserves be fully developed; and WHEREAS it is the finding of the City Council that additional local employment during exploration will certainly sequence from such leasing; and WHEREAS the City Council finds there is plainly a general need in the protracted local and state fuels crisis for more oil and gas supply; and WHEREAS the City Council finds there is an immediate, imperative public necessity for greatly augmented natural gas supply in South Texas generally; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TZW : SECTION 1. That this City Council endorses the plan and program of the United States Department of the Interior to lease offshore Outer Continental Shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico within any radius from the extraterritorial limits of the City of Corpus Christi and within such limits, as well as within the limits of the City itself, for the exploration, drilling, production, or any combination thereof, of oil, gas and /or other minerals within said waters and lands. SECTION 2. That copies of this Resolution be promptly sent by the City Secretary to all local, State, and Federal agencies or the chief officers thereof reasonably to be expected to be concerned with or interested in the subject of this Resolution. -3- SECTION 3. The necessity to immediately endorse the plan and program of the United States Department of the Interior regarding leasing of offshore Outer Continental Shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico and to furnish copies of this Resolution as hereinabove outlined creates a public emergency and an imperative public necessity requiring the suspension of the Charter rule that no ordinance or resolution shall be passed finally on the date of its introduction and that such ordinance or resolution shall be read at three several meetings of the City Council, and the Mayor, having declared such emergency and necessity to exist, having requested the suspension of the Charter rule and that this resolution take effect and be in full force and effect from and after its passage, IT IS ACCORDINGLY SO RESOLVED this thed y of September, 1974. ATTEST: A / / yam, '' ITY OF F1• CHRISTI, APPROVED: DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1974: City ttorney • Corpus �Christi, Texas day of 19 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL Corpus Christi, Texas For the reasons set forth in the emergency clause of the foregoing ordinance, a public emergency and imperative necessity exist for the suspen- sion of the Charter rule or requirement that no ordinance or resolution shall be passed finally on the date it is introduced, and that such ordinance or resolution shall be read at three meetings of the City Council; I, therefore, request that you suspend said Charter rule or requirement and pass this ordi- nance finally on the date it is introduced, or at the present meeting of the City Council. Respectfully, 1 2 V, �45 MAYOR PIP 7qK T CWY OF CORPU ISTI, TEXAS The Charter rule was suspended by the following vote: 6t Jason Luby 4I.,� James T. Acuff Rev. Harold T. Branch Thomas V. Gonzales Ricardo Gonzalez Gabe Lozano, Sr. J. Howard Stark The above ordinance was passed by the following vote: Jason Luby James T. Acuff Rev. Harold T. Branch Thomas V. Gonzales Ricardo Gonzalez Gabe Lozano, Sr. J. Howard Stark