Travel the Oregon Trail

Did you know that you can not pump your own gas in Oregon? Did you know that there is no sales tax in Oregon? Well...I just spent the last week in Oregon on a lacrosse trip and found out many new things about the northwest coast.  It rains a lot during the spring or maybe all the time! But, as I drove through the state of Oregon as a young geologist, I noticed that there was a massive amount of Basalt.  As a petroleum geologist, I wondered if there is any gas and oil production in the state of Oregon, and if there is, where are they producing?

(The Greatest Game for Computer, early 1990s)

Apparently, according to the Bureau of Land Management, there are no active drilling or exploration sites in Oregon.  There are multiple lease sales though for the potential exploration to take place.  The thick basalt flows could potentially be a good seal for marine type reservoirs below, but drilling through basalt is very costly.  Maybe in the near future "when" oil and gas prices increase more exploration drilling will take part in the State of Oregon.  Another thought was drilling and production offshore of Oregon, but the Oregon state House bill 3613 bans offshore Oregon coast drilling until year 2020.  With no sales tax and no domestic petroleum production where does Oregon collect for its states financial needs? ...it must be from all the tourist going to Crater Lake :)