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Posts Tagged ‘James Flores’

More on the Santa Ynez Unit saga: will the 1/2 billion+ barrels of remaining reserves ever be produced?

Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , on February 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Per our previous post on the complex status of the Santa Ynez Unit, Lars Herbst has brought this informative article to our attention. Here is the bottom line:

With this deal, Exxon is essentially lending Flame, Sable’s management team and PIPE investors the money to buy the facilities from itself. If they are able to get them back online, great, Exxon gets its $623 million loan paid back with 10% interest. If not, it presumably repossesses the facilities and their associated headaches.

This is what has been produced and what remains:

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Another chapter in the Santa Ynez Unit saga

Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , on November 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

HOUSTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp will take up to a $2 billion loss on the highly leveraged sale of a troubled California offshore oil and gas field that have been idled since a 2015 pipeline spill.

Sable Offshore, a blank check company founded by industry veteran James Flores, will borrow 97% of the $643 million purchase price from Exxon under a five-year loan. Blank check companies raise money to acquire operating businesses. If Flores fails to restart production at the Santa Ynez field by the start of 2026, Exxon could take back the entire operation, Sable disclosed in a filing.Flores will seek permits to restart Santa Ynez and expects to pump about 28,100 barrels of oil and gas per day beginning in 2024, according to a Sable investor presentation. The field has 112 wells and the potential for at least another 100 wells, its presentation showed.

Jim Flores is well known in the offshore industry dating back to his days as CEO of Flores & Rucks, a Gulf of Mexico exploration and production company, in the 1990’s.

And Exxon is no doubt still on the hook for decommissioning these massive platforms.

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