Some history on the oil that comes from our oil field:
A little known fact is that the southern San Joaquin Valley, and Kern County in particular,produces a tremendous amount of electricity through a process called steam cogeneration. Because about two-thirds of the oil produced in California is "heavy" (in other words, too thick and viscous to flow on its own), steam is pumped into the ground to heat the oil and make it behave more like water and less like molasses. Thus, steam injection makes the oil more mobile and enables it to flow into wells where it can be produced.
Cogeneration simply means using steam to first turn turbines and produce electricity before the steam is pumped into the
subsurface to heat the heavy oil the sandstonereservoirs.
Enough electricity is produced through cogeneration in the southern San Joaquin Valley to supply the power needs for more than 1.5 million homes. This far exceeds the energy requirements of Kern County, so the excess electricity is sent south over the
mountains to power-hungry Los Angeles. Were it not for oil-related cogeneration, the electricity bills of Los Angeles residents would be much higher than they are today.
Here'a a list of previous gushers and how they ended their glory:
Famous gushers of California
Ventura Basin - The first gusher in California was the Adams No. 16, a well in Adams
Canyon in the Ventura basin, which spouted over the top in 1888. This well was followed
in February, 1892 by the bigger Adams No. 28, which flowed out of control at about 1,500
barrels per day to send torrents of oil down the Santa Clara River and out to sea. Drilled by
the Hardison and Stewart Oil Company, a predecessor of the Union Oil Company of
California, these two wells demonstrated to the world the huge potential of the California
oil fields.
McKittrick - The first truly big gusher in the southern San Joaquin Valley (Kern County)
was a Klondike Oil Company well called the Shamrock Gusher, which came in at 1,300
barrels a day in 1896. The Shamrock gusher signaled the end of tar mining operations in
Kern County and heralded the rapid ascendancy of the San Joaquin Valley to the most
prolific oil province of California.
Coalinga - The Shamrock gusher was closely followed by a well at Coalinga in the
northern San Joaquin Valley (Fresno County) that was named the Home Oil Company No. 3.
Sometimes called the "Blue Goose" gusher, this well blew out in 1898 at 1,000 barrels of
oil per day. It was followed in September, 1909 by the Silvertip No. 1 gusher which flowed
out of control at the phenomenal rate of 10,000 to 20,000 barrels per day.
Santa Maria - The first and biggest of several spectacular gushers in Santa Maria field,
on the California coast, was the Union Oil Hartnell No. 1, known to most as "Old Maud",
which went over the top in 1904 and flowed 12,000 barrels of oil a day for the next three
months. Old Maud blew for two more years and ultimately produced 3 million barrels of oil.
Midway-Sunset - The 1896 success of the Shamrock gusher in the southern San Joaquin
was followed in November, 1909 by the Chanslor-Canfield Midway No. 2-6, simply called
the Midway Gusher, which blew out near the oil town of Fellows. Flowing at about 2,000
barrels of per day, this well foreshadowed development of Midway-Sunset, a billion-barrel
field which today is the largest oil-producing field in the continental United States.
Lakeview - Spectacular as the Midway gusher was, it was dwarfed by Lakeview No. 1,
located only 12 miles to the southwest, which started flowing, uncapped and untamed, on
the morning of March 15, 1910. The Lakeview gusher initially flowed as much as 125,000
barrels of oil per day, and flowed at 15,000 to 90,000 barrels a day for the next two
months. Unequaled in the United States to this day, Lakeview flowed unabated for 18
months and produced an estimated 8.2 million barrels, only half of which was ultimately
saved and sold.
Elk Hills - The greatest gas well in the United States was the Standard Hay No. 7 at Elk
Hills, a field known to most these days as the former U.S. Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1.
Foreshadowed by several nearby blowouts, Hay No. 7 blew in and caught fire on July 26,
1919 at a flowing rate of 50 million cubic feet of gas per day. The well created a
spectacular pillar of flame that shot high into the air and burned out of control for 26
days until the flame was extinguished with dynamite. Capped at an estimated rate of 140
MMCFD, this great well produced 43 billion cubic feet of gas over the next 7 years.
Los Angeles - Signal Hill field in the Los Angeles basin in the 1920's had many blowouts
that erupted into spectacular pillars of flame, visible for miles around. This led to
demands for state-enforced safety measures with the result that blow-out prevention
equipment became mandatory in 1929 on all wells drilled in California.
Offshore California - Despite blow-out preventers, the fifth well in the offshore Dos
Cuadros field blew out in February, 1969 and spilled thousands of barrels of oil into the
Santa Barbara channel. This disaster ultimately led to a ban on offshore drilling in
California that remains in force today.
Good luck Tommorrow I've had KOB for almost 3 full years now. Sold off early in thr rush to profit and look for an opportunity to get back in. |
