Oil company swaps with environmental group

HOUSTON, April 11 (UPI) -- A Houston oil company says it has agreed to create two parks and stop drilling offshore in exchange for support of more drilling rights.

Plains Exploration and Production Co. said Thursday it has agreed to stop drilling off Santa Barbara County in California decades early, a victory for environmental groups, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The company also will withdraw development proposals for 200 acres of shoreline property and 3,700 acres inland in California, which will be turned over to parkland. In addition, it will contribute millions of dollars to projects designed to offset carbon dioxide emissions, the Times reported.

In exchange, Get Oil Out and the Environmental Defense Center will support the oil company's petition to begin "slant drilling" from offshore platforms that will tap reserves of 200 million barrels of oil and 50 billion cubic feat of natural gas near the Tranquillon Ridge.

The agreement needs a stamp of approval from county officials, the State Lands Commission, the California Coastal Commission and the Department of the Interior, the report said.

"It's hard for me to imagine that they won't approve this," Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center told the newspaper.