Occidental Gives Up Offshore Drilling Plan

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has abandoned its fight to drill for oil in Pacific Palisades, company Chairman Ray Irani said Thursday. “My decision is not to pursue it,” Irani said at an annual shareholders’ meeting.

Occidental had won drilling permits in 1985 to drill on the coastline in an area controlled by the city of Los Angeles. But a ballot measure, Proposition O, was approved by voters in 1988 to ban oil drilling within 1,000 yards of the Los Angeles coast.

The company sought to overturn the measure in court and sought an extension of the 1985 approvals from the city, but was unsuccessful. “I am delighted that any future doubt about the protection of our Los Angeles coastline is now removed,” said City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, co-author of Proposition O. “Occidental’s decision vindicates years of hard work by community activists and environmentalists, and the vote of the people in 1988.”