Rincon Island (California)
The Rincon basin properties cover approximately 1,700 mineral acres (6.9 km2), including a 2.3-acre (9,300 m2) island connected to land by a 2,700-foot (820 m) causeway containing the gas and oil pipelines and facilitating vehicular access.
and the site of an 1838 battle between Alvarado and Pio Pico, described in poem by Bayard Taylor, "The Fight of the Paso del Mar.
[2][5] The local physical environment consists of the Pacific Ocean, local coastal mountains, U.S. Highway 101, several beach homes and a hotel located approximately 3,000 feet (910 m) north near the Mussel Shoals exit along Highway 101, the nearby community of La Conchita, and other nearby petroleum production facilities.
When approving that assignment, the Commission required that ARCO remain liable for removing Rincon Island and the causeway leading to it.
The wells at Rincon produced from depths between 1,700 and 2,800 feet (850 m) from the Miley sands of the Upper Pliocene-aged Pico Formation in an anticline, which plunges from the west towards the east.
On 29 January of that year, Stanton Capital Corp., a private investment firm, agreed to buy about half of the parent's assets, including the Rincon Island partnership, for approximately $170 million.
On May 13, the parent announced that the proposed sale had fallen through because low product prices rendered Stanton's plan to add capital to the assets and take them public unfeasible.
In October 2002, Greka Energy Corp., then a publicly traded company based in New York, bought the Rincon Island operation, which included 56 wells, and assumed about $1.7 million of debt.
A separate Greka entity, also owned by CEO Randeep Grewal, is active in China, where it has signed production agreements for coalbed methane properties.
In 2005, Greka Energy filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in New York, beset by legal judgments, state environmental litigation and a federal criminal probe.
[9] Starting in 1999, the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District inspected Greka facilities 855 times, citing about 300 violations.
[14] Facing a potential termination of its lease by the State Lands Commission for "imprudent oil and gas operations," Rincon Island Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Greka Energy, filed for bankruptcy on August 9, 2016.
[16] On November 30, 2017, the Bankruptcy Court approved a joint motion to grant the State Lands Commission a quitclaim over Rincon Island, which was effected on December 6, 2017.
As a result, Rincon Island was added to the California Coastal Sanctuary and the last operational oil drilling and production facility in the Santa Barbara Channel ended.
[18] The final disposition of the island and causeway will require an environmental analysis under CEQA, public input, discretionary approval by the commission itself and other agencies, funding, and hiring a decommissioning contractor.
