63:. Vegetation on the hills around the oil field is mostly grassland. The field is about 9 miles (14 km) long and 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 km) across, although some of the productive areas are widely separated, and even within the four named areas the pools are often discontiguous. Elevations on the field range from around 650 feet (200 m) at the southern boundary along Poso Creek to over 1,400 feet (430 m) in the northeastern portion; the central area of operations, around Halfway House, is approximately 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level.
158:) of oil per day; however, by the 1980s, Shell had increased production to 25,000 barrels (4,000 m) of oil per day, attaining a total of over 9 million bbl (1.4 million m) in 1981, the highest yield ever achieved from the field, and making the field the 8th-most productive in the state. In 1999, as the field appeared to be played out, they sold it to Nuevo Energy, the predecessor of
20:
101:
pools in structural and stratigraphic traps, and divided into six general areas, all of which are cut by faults, and many of which are discontiguous even within named areas. From north to south, the areas are: Dominion, the second-largest, at 790 acres (3.2 km); Granite Canyon (130 acres
102:(0.53 km)); the Main Area, the largest, at 2,335 acres (9.45 km); West (210 acres (0.85 km)); Dorsey Area (410 acres (1.7 km)); and the Baker-Grover Area (115 acres (0.47 km)). All six areas include wells in the Vedder Formation, of
286:. Vol. I (1998), Vol. II (1992), Vol. III (1982). California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). 1,472 pp. Mount Poso Oil Field information pp. 294-300. PDF file available on CD from www.consrv.ca.gov.
39:, United States. Discovered in 1926, it is the 21st largest field in California by total ultimate oil recovery, having a cumulative production of close to 300 million barrels (48,000,000 m). The current principal operator of the field is
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The oil field is shallow, compared to other
Central Valley fields, as the basement rocks are only about 3,000 feet (910 m) below ground surface. The deepest well only goes to 3,759 feet (1,146 m), reaching the Freeman Formation, of
141:
The Mount Poso Oil Field was discovered in 1926, during an era in which many of the large
California oil fields were found, especially those adjacent to the previous large discoveries which had taken place in the preceding three decades.
88:
The climate is semi-arid, with long, hot summers and cool winters. Most precipitation falls in the winter, in the form of rain, with the amount increasing with elevation. Summertime temperatures regularly exceed 100 °F (38 °C).
81:, which is between the Poso Creek field and the Kern River field; all three of these nearby fields are in the lowest portion of the foothills as they begin to rise from the valley floor. To the southeast of Mount Poso is the
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Shell Oil acquired the field in the 1960s, intending to subject the entire area to steam flooding, a technology which was then new, and producing impressive yields elsewhere in heavy oil fields in
California, such as the
43:; 652 wells remained active at the end of 2006, while production had dwindled to 554,000 barrels (88,100 m) during that year, from a peak of over 9 million barrels (1,400,000 m) in 1981.
227:
R.B. Block, "Ramp-style deposition of
Oligocene Marine Vedder formation, San Joaquin Valley, California," Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, April 1986
297:
336:
181:
257:
Sande, Jeff. "Mt. Poso Oil Field Keeps On
Ticking: Geology, Technology, and Market Forces Drive the Life Cycle of This Giant Field."
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in the San
Joaquin Valley bottom, and Granite Road crosses the field from south to north, also passing through the Kern Front field.
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of 13 to 16. Sulfur content is also consistent at approximately 0.65 percent by weight throughout the different pools.
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age, while the
Dominion and Main Areas also include wells in the more recently discovered Freeman-Jewett Formation, of
166:, in 2006. As of 2009, Vintage was the largest operator on the field, with numerous smaller operators still active.
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Access to the field is by several roads. Famoso Woody Road enters the field from the west, from its junction with
67:
162:(PXP). This firm ran the field until they sold their portion of it to Vintage Production LLC, a subsidiary of
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age. Source rocks are well-sorted medium grain marine sandstones of high porosity (around 35%).
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16:
Oil and gas field in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Kern County, California, United States
290:
California
Department of Conservation, Oil and Gas Statistics, Annual Report, December 31, 2006.
182:
California
Department of Conservation, Oil and Gas Statistics, Annual Report, December 31, 2006
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age. Underneath the oil-bearing sedimentary formations, the basement granitic complex is of
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Oil from the field is heavy crude, and consistent between the different areas, ranging from
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23:
The Mount Poso Oil Field in Kern County, California. Other oil fields are shown in gray.
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The oil field is in the lower Sierra
Foothills, north and northeast of the city of
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and Kern River fields. In 1969, production from the field was a mere 1,560
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to the southwest, adjacent to the San Joaquin Valley bottomland, and the
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Other oil fields nearby, in addition the Kern River field, are the
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is a large oil and gas field in the lower foothills of the
246:
B. Rintoul. Heavy Oil: Aggressive Program Revives Field
270:
Sale agreement between Plains and Vintage, October 2006
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The Mount Poso Oil Field is a complex agglomeration of
59:. To the west is the large agricultural region of the
122:
age. It rises towards the east, part of the enormous
284:
California Oil and Gas Fields, Volumes I, II and III
8:
174:
337:Oil fields in Kern County, California
206:. U.S. Forest Service. Archived from
204:"Ecological Subregions of California"
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248:. Energy Citations Database, 1981.
160:Plains Exploration & Production
137:History, production, and operations
55:, and directly north of the giant
14:
41:California Resources Corporation
1:
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68:California State Route 65
342:Oil fields in California
83:Round Mountain Oil Field
124:Sierra Nevada Batholith
37:Kern County, California
259:Searchanddiscovery.com
24:
22:
313:35.5972°N 118.9632°W
164:Occidental Petroleum
79:Kern Front Oil Field
75:Poso Creek Oil Field
57:Kern River Oil Field
29:Mount Poso Oil Field
309: /
318:35.5972; -118.9632
236:DOGGR, pp. 294-300
61:San Joaquin Valley
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33:Sierra Nevada
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212:. Retrieved
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304:118°57′48″W
131:API gravity
53:Bakersfield
331:Categories
301:35°35′50″N
278:References
214:2014-02-22
154:(248
104:Oligocene
99:petroleum
120:Jurassic
184:, p. 67
152:barrels
108:Miocene
93:Geology
47:Setting
116:Eocene
170:Notes
27:The
35:in
333::
126:.
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217:.
156:m
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
