Offshore Oil Talks Near an End; Chances of Accord Appear to Diminish

Negotiations to limit offshore oil drilling in California are coming to a close, with the state’s delegation still at odds with the Reagan Administration over plans for developing the coastline.

After four months of talks, the two sides remain far apart. Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel initially set May 31 as a target for reaching an agreement. He extended it to next week after the negotiators failed to resolve their differences.

With time running out, the chances of forging a pact appear to be diminishing.

Interior officials say that they must begin laying the groundwork for a five-year offshore plan for the nation within the next several days. The plan requires a lengthy environmental analysis that already has been postponed. California congressmen, however, say that they will seek congressional approval of a drilling ban if the Interior Department begins work on the plan.

Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) said Wednesday that he is hopeful that a breakthrough may still come next week. He said the delegation is putting together a new offer that could overcome the “very tough hurdles” if Interior Department officials show “greater flexibility” than they have in the past.

“We’re going to make a legitimate offer,” Panetta said. “I just don’t want to label the effort as having collapsed at this point.”

But others were more pessimistic. Jim Burroughs, an aide to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), said the next meeting “could very well be the last meeting.”

“They (Interior Department officials) are in the driver’s seat,” Burroughs said. “We’re not. We don’t have any protection. We don’t have a moratorium. . . . We don’t have much going in our favor, quite frankly.”

Assistant Interior Secretary Steven Griles, who has spearheaded the negotiations for the Administration, said he still hopes that a consensus can be reached.

“We’ve worked very hard on a compromise proposal that we think they would find difficult to reject because we’ve addressed each of their particular concerns, or attempted to,” Griles said.

The dispute centers largely around drilling in Santa Monica Bay, Mendocino, Bodega Bay and the Santa Cruz coastline. So far, California delegation members have suggested restricting new offshore drilling to at least 15 miles from shore.

The federal line begins three miles out. Interior negotiators, complaining that the congressional proposal would permit development of only 10% of the tracts the oil industry wants to explore, countered with a proposal that would extend the boundary in some areas beyond the three miles but no where up to 15 miles.

Hodel has made resolution of the long feud over California offshore drilling a high priority. He reached a preliminary agreement with Californian lawmakers last summer to limit development to 150 tracts.

But the oil industry strongly opposed the pact and Hodel later dissociated himself from it. He said he had not realized at the time how little oil the tracts would yield. The fiasco infuriated the oil industry and sparked strong distrust among members of the California delegation.