These acquisitions gave the company petroleum-producing assets in the Southwestern United States and California.

[12][13] In 2012, the company acquired assets in the Gulf of Mexico from BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

[1] The company attempted to negotiate a complex compromise deal in Santa Barbara County with environmental groups and state regulators to allow for drilling into the undeveloped Tranquillon Ridge, off the western coast of the county, in return for the company decommissioning and doing environmental restoration on the old and mostly played-out Lompoc Oil Field, which consists of approximately 3,700 acres (15 km2) of ecologically-sensitive habitat adjacent to the Burton Mesa Ecological Preserve.

The project would have given the state of California $2 billion and Santa Barbara County about $350 million in tax revenues during that time.

[15] In May 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger revived the project by including it in a revised budget proposal.