Exxon's Hondo Field goes on stream - at last

After more than 10 years of frustrating regulatory delays and an outlay of $600 million, Exxon Co. USA has brought on stream its rich Hondo Oil Field in the Santa Ynez Unit of California's Santa Barbara Channel. The first wells on Hondo Platform A are delivering crude into a storage and treating vessel anchored nearby. The first carrier tanker arrived in mid-April 1981, to take on the first cargo of produced oil. The crude will travel in 5 dedicated shuttle tankers through the Panama Canal to Exxon's Baytown, Texas Refinery. Seventeen wells have been drilled so far from the 945 ft tall platform, installed in 850 ft of water near the western end of the channel. That water depth ranks second in US offshore development to a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. By the end of this year Hondo Field will be producing 30,000 bpd. In 1982, when 24 wells are producing and 4 injection wells are returning water and natural gas to the reservoir, production will rise to its peak of 35,000 to 40,000 bpd.