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44-430: The field was discovered in 1908, just seven years after the nearby Orcutt field. At first it was developed slowly, because of difficulties in drilling and keeping wells productive, but as ever-richer reservoirs were revealed in the next two decades it gradually became one of the most productive fields in the state. A mature field in decline, estimated reserves have dwindled to 2.3 million barrels, less than one percent of

88-514: A Mediterranean climate , with cool and rainy winters, and dry summers during which the heat is greatly diminished by fog and northwesterly winds from the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean , which is about 15 miles (24 km) west of the field. Prevailing winds year-round are from the west-northwest. Approximately 14 inches (36 cm) of rain falls in a typical winter, with the rainy season lasting from around November to April. Drainage on

132-566: A cumulative production in 2008 of 870,000 barrels (138,000 m ) of oil, it is the largest onshore producing field in Santa Barbara County. The Orcutt field was called the "Santa Maria Field" until the discovery of the larger Santa Maria Valley Oil Field on the plain to the north, an area which is now largely covered with the urban and suburban development. Several oil companies, including Pacidic Coast Energy Company (PCEC) and Phoenix Energy, LLC are still actively producing from

176-553: A post office, swimming pool, grocery store, and school house , in addition to over 900 residences. The school house is the solitary remaining building, and is currently in use by Pacific Coast Energy Company (PCEC), who operates much of the field. In 1947 the name of the field was changed officially from "Santa Maria" to "Orcutt", to differentiate it from the Santa Maria Valley field to the north, discovered in 1934. Several enhanced recovery operations have been used on

220-555: Is a large oil field in the Solomon Hills south of Orcutt , in Santa Barbara County, California , United States. Discovered in 1901 by William Warren Orcutt , it was the first giant field (over 100 million barrels (16,000,000 m ) in ultimate recovery) to be found in Santa Barbara County, and its development led to the boom town of Orcutt, now the major unincorporated southern suburb of Santa Maria . With

264-465: Is also used for grazing. Wine grapes are also grown in the area: Sutter Home Winery owns a vineyard adjacent to the oil field on Cat Canyon Road near U.S. Highway 101. Terrain is rolling to steep, with some flat bottomlands along the more significant watercourses, such as the Sisquoc River, and the terrain also flattens to the north-northwest at the boundary of the Santa Maria Valley. Most of

308-523: Is named, was tasked by Union Oil to survey the area in 1901. Orcutt came back with a report that made Union Oil aggressive in the area. Following his report, the company leased around 70,000 acres (280 km ) in the valley and vicinity, including the hills, and began drilling. In October 1901, their third well on the Careaga lease came in at 150 barrels per day (24 m /d), beginning the field's long history. The most productive well of all, and one of

352-400: Is sent by pipeline offsite. Sulfur is scrubbed from the gas prior to use. Oil leaves the field both by pipeline and by truck. Water separated from the oil is disposed by reinjection into the producing formation. In early 2012 the four operators with the most active wells on the field were Greka Energy, B.E. Conway, ERG, and Vintage Petroleum. Greka's Cat Canyon operation has been listed by

396-464: Is water – was 92.4 percent, indicative of a mature field. Greka processes its oil onsite at the Bell Lease. The processing and treatment facility consists of boilers, an oil-water separator, storage tanks, and pipelines both for gathering oil and gas from the wells and for sending it offsite. Gas from the field is used as a fuel onsite to heat oil in the tanks and power the pumping units, and some

440-639: The Lompoc Oil Field in the similarly anticlinal ridge of the Purisima Hills to the south, and the Zaca field to the southeast. Oil from the field is heavy in the main Monterey producing horizon, with API gravity of 14-17. The Point Sal, discovered in 1905 at a depth of 2,700 feet (820 m), has lighter oil, with gravity 22-24. Some of the more recently discovered deep horizons, such as

484-538: The Sisquoc , Careaga , and Foxen formations . The Careaga and Foxen are of Pliocene age, while the thicker, diatomaceous Sisquoc is both Pliocene and Upper Miocene . Beneath these, separated by an unconformity , is the fractured shale of the Monterey Formation which has been richly productive for over 100 years. This is the same producing formation as in many other California oil fields, including

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528-693: The Cat Canyon area took place in 1904, with two attempts by Rice Ranch Oil Co. to find oil or gas. Both wells failed on boulders and loose sand which plugged the well bores. Palmer Oil Company succeeded in 1908, drilling to 3,200 feet with a well that produced 150 barrels a day. Compared to the gigantic gushers of the Orcutt field, it was a modest success at first. However, after several months it began to flow, and then spout, becoming an immense gusher producing in excess of 10,000 barrels per day before clogging up with sand and ceasing altogether. Similarly, oil in

572-631: The Lospe in the Careaga Area, or the Deep Monterey in the field's Main Area, are lighter yet. These two pools were discovered in 1985 and 1981, respectively. Prospectors long suspected the presence of oil in the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding hills, but the late 19th-century attempts to find it were either shallow or misplaced. Union Oil Co. geologist William Warren Orcutt, for whom the town

616-491: The Orcutt field. The field, mostly located on the old Careaga family ranch, also contains the remains of the ghost town of Bicknell , a company town built for oil workers in the early years of the 20th century, but abandoned in the mid-1930s. The Orcutt field occupies a large portion of the Solomon Hills and Careaga canyon south of Orcutt, including most of the otherwise undeveloped land between Highway 101 on

660-580: The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District as a "significant risk facility". Three Health Risk Assessments have been performed, in 1991, 1994, and 1998, all before Greka acquired the facilities, and they showed steadily decreasing cancer and non-cancer risks. From 1991 to 1998, the cancer risk had declined from 63 in a million to 12 in a million. On December 7, 2007, Greka spilled over 58,000 US gallons (220 m) of oil at their Bell Lease on

704-485: The Second World War, and by 1952 there were 80 new wells just in the west part of the field. As production began its inevitable decline with the exhaustion of easily recovered oil, and consequent drop in reservoir pressure, drillers began trying secondary recovery techniques. Gas injection was used from 1947 in the west part of the field, and several waterfloods were attempted as well. Peak oil production from

748-443: The Solomon Hills east of U.S. Highway 101 are included within the oilfield boundary. The region has a Mediterranean climate , with cool and rainy winters, and dry summers during which the heat is moderated by prevailing winds from the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean , 20 miles to the west. Approximately 15 inches (38 cm) of rain falls in a typical winter, with the rainy season lasting from around November to April. Drainage for

792-565: The West Area, oil is present in the overlying Sisquoc Formation in several sand units, in stratigraphic traps – pinched out within less-permeable units – while deeper oil is trapped in the structural trap of the faulted Las Flores anticline, within the fractured shale of the Monterey Formation. The most productive portions of the Cat Canyon field are along and northeast of the southeast-to-northwest trending Las Flores anticline,

836-622: The central and eastern portions of the field is to the north and northeast along Cat Canyon into the Sisquoc River . To the west and southwest, water flows out to the sea by way of San Antonio Creek . The Cat Canyon field is one of several in the Santa Maria Basin in which the Monterey Formation is both the primary source rock and the primary reservoir rock. Deposited in Miocene time, approximately 6 to 16 million years ago,

880-548: The east and State Route 135 on the west. Its total productive area is 4,220 acres (17.1 km ), almost 7 square miles (18 km ). Most of the active oilfield operations are invisible from the populated parts of the Santa Maria Valley , as the wells, tanks, and other facilities are behind the Graciosa Ridge, which rises to 1,346 feet (410 m) elevation at Mount Solomon, and the most active part of

924-445: The east area of Cat Canyon was discovered by Brooks Oil Company in 1909 when Well No. 1 was drilled to a depth of 2,615 feet. In the early years, numerous small oil companies drilled the field, with little coordination. Palmer Oil was the most successful of the early producers, along with Pinal Dome Oil Company, Santa Maria Oil Fields Inc., and Union Oil Company of California , which preceded Unocal . By 1912, there were 35 wells on

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968-457: The entire Cat Canyon field was in 1953, coinciding with development of newly discovered pools and enhanced recovery techniques in existing drilling operations. The advent of tertiary recovery techniques in the 1960s made possible another pulse of development of the field. In 1963, several cyclic steam projects commenced, followed by steam flooding, and in some cases fire flooding – all techniques for mobilizing heavy, viscous oil relatively close to

1012-440: The extreme southeast was once considered to be a separate field. Total productive area of the oil field is 8,970 acres. Vegetation in the area is predominantly chaparral and oak woodlands ( California montane chaparral and woodlands ), with riparian areas along the creeks and grasslands on many hillsides. Some of the flat areas are agricultural, and much of the area which is not either farmed or directly used for oil production

1056-409: The field began to slow after the peak, and in the late 1920s Union Oil, which by then owned the majority of the field, cut production in half. During the boom period, Union Oil built a small company town on the field itself. Bicknell, which still appears on USGS topographic maps, was abandoned in the 1930s, with some of the houses themselves being moved down the hill to Orcutt. At its peak it included

1100-503: The field in 2003 to Energy Reserves Group LLC. This company operated the field for one year before selling to Breitburn Energy in 2004 for $ 46.7 million. Breitburn remains the largest operator on the field. Another operator active as of 2010 is Pacific Resources, LLC, a division of Santa Maria Pacific. 34°49′27″N 120°24′21″W  /  34.8241°N 120.4059°W  / 34.8241; -120.4059 Paso Robles Formation Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1144-411: The field in 2009 was on the south slope of the range. There are no public roads entering the field. Terrain is rolling and occasionally steep, with wellpads cut into hillsides or occupying flat areas. Native vegetation is a mix of chaparral and oak woodlands ( California montane chaparral and woodlands ), with some stands of Bishop pine ( Pinus muricata ) on north-facing slopes. The region has

1188-409: The field is generally heavy, with API gravity ranging from 6 to 18, except in the West Area where the range is 11 to 23. In the low ranges, especially when below 10 degrees API, oil has difficulty flowing and usually requires assistance from a diluent, steam, water flooding, or another mechanism. Diluents, steam, and water flooding have all been used on the Cat Canyon field. Sulfur content of oil from

1232-521: The field is high, ranging from 3 to 6 percent by weight. Oil discoveries in the 1880s and 1890s in Los Angeles County, and along the south coast of Santa Barbara County, encouraged drillers to investigate the northern part of Santa Barbara County, and they were quickly rewarded, with the discovery of the huge Orcutt field in 1901 and the Lompoc field in 1903. The first attempts to find oil in

1276-548: The field, along Palmer Road. The U.S. EPA took control of the cleanup effort on this and two other spills on the same lease after Greka failed to comply with their requirements. Greka claimed that they were progressing on an initiative to become more eco-friendly – "Greka Green" – by replacing corroding infrastructure with more modern equipment less likely to emit pollutants. 34°50′01″N 120°18′15″W  /  34.8336°N 120.3042°W  / 34.8336; -120.3042 Orcutt Oil Field The Orcutt Oil Field

1320-628: The field, beginning with waterflooding in 1951 (a technique of filling a depleting reservoir with wastewater, both to dispose of produced water and to increase reservoir pressure, allowing more oil to be pumped out). Both gas injection and alkaline flood operations have been used in the Point Sal horizon in the Main Area. Unocal sold the field in the 1990s along with other assets in California. Other owners have included Nuevo Energy, who sold

1364-473: The field, developed by 26 different companies, but only three of the wells were consistent producers; all of the others had failed on heaving sands or other unfavorable subsurface conditions. The field expanded until the end of the First World War, at which time drilling slowed down, ceasing entirely in 1927. The field was difficult, its oil was heavy and difficult to market except for asphalt, and

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1408-531: The field, with another 727 shut in. The West Area had the most active wells, with 99, followed by the Sisquoc Area with 64 and the Gato Ridge Area with 43. The East Area had the highest proportion of shut in wells to active, with 269 and 20 respectively. This area was formerly produced by Aera Energy, LLC. Throughout the field the average water cut – the percentage of liquid drawn from wells which

1452-415: The most productive in the history of the industry, was the result of an accident. In 1904 a drilling crew was transporting their equipment to a pre-determined location, but a road accident on the way upended the boiler they had been carrying. Rather than putting the rig back together and continuing, they decided to make their work easier and drill on the spot. It turned out to be a good idea. "Old Maud", as

1496-564: The name "Old Maud" has not been definitively determined; some sources attribute it to the name of a mule, others to a favored town prostitute. Peak oil production from the Orcutt field – or the Santa Maria field as it was known then – occurred early, in 1908, at 8.7 million barrels (1,380,000 m ) in that year. By this year the boom town of Orcutt, built to house the oilfield workers, already had approximately 1,000 residents, along with saloons , hotels, and restaurants. Production from

1540-468: The plunge in oil prices during the Great Depression discouraged further exploration. With the discovery of the adjacent Santa Maria Valley field in 1934, interest in the area was renewed, and a new period of drilling and production began in 1938 when the rich Los Flores pool was discovered in a new type of reservoir, the fractured shale of the Monterey Formation. Drilling was continuous through

1584-419: The price of oil had risen to over $ 80 per barrel at the time of purchase, and that recovery technology for heavy oil had greatly advanced since Chevron had produced the wells, the operation would be profitable to ERG. In November 2011, ERG acquired permits to drill another 15 to 20 wells, and was preparing applications for about twice that many more. As of the beginning of 2010, there were 243 active oil wells on

1628-638: The region along which oil fields are found, with the Solomon Hills being the surface expression of this anticline . In the Orcutt field, oil has pooled in a dome-like structure bounded on the north by the Orcutt Fault and on the southwest by the Casmalia Fault, at a minimum depth of 900 feet (270 m) in a diatomite formation. The deepest oil-producing horizon was not discovered until 1981, and yields oil from about 9,300 feet (2,800 m) below ground surface. The capping geologic units are

1672-599: The rock is rich in organic carbon – averaging 3.5%, but ranging from 1 to 20% – and has aged sufficiently to allow the organic detritus to evolve into oil, mostly heavy and with high sulfur content. Another possible source rock other than the Monterey is the Rincon Formation , which underlies the Monterey in some parts of the oil field. Oil produced from these source rocks has migrated upwards, forming reservoirs in both structural and stratigraphic traps. The Cat Canyon field shows both types of trapping mechanisms. In

1716-672: The south side of the hills is down Harris Canyon, Long Canyon, and Careaga Canyon, to San Antonio Creek , which exits to the ocean through Vandenberg Air Force Base . Drainage to the north is to Orcutt Creek, which passes Old Town Orcutt on the north on its way to its juncture with the Santa Maria River and the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe . The Orcutt field is one of several along the Casmalia-Orcutt Anticline, one of several anticlinal structures in

1760-435: The southeastern extreme of the flat Santa Maria Valley south and southeast into the Solomon Hills. It is approximately ten miles long on the northwest to southeast axis, and four miles across at its widest point. It is divided into three major areas: East/Central, West, and Sisquoc. In addition to these major areas, the field has three smaller, outlying areas: Olivera Canyon, Tinaquaic, and Gato Ridge. The Gato Ridge area in

1804-524: The surface expression of which is the crest of the Solomon Hills. The Gato Ridge anticline to the southeast has a similar function with respect to that detached part of the oil field. Overlying the oil-bearing rocks of the Sisquoc and the Monterey formations, throughout the field, are several layers of less permeable, non-oil-bearing rocks, including the Foxen , Careaga , and Paso Robles formations . Oil in

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1848-459: The surface. At the end of 2009, all of the cyclic steam and steam flood wells were reported to be shut in, while water flood and water disposal wells remained in use on the field. In July 2010 ERG Resources, LLC, of Houston, Texas, acquired the assets of Chevron on the field, consisting of over 300 wells, most of which had been out of production for more than 20 years. The company stated the intention to return most of them to production. Given that

1892-454: The total produced in the preceding century. A total of 243 wells remained active, although a field revitalization program commenced by ERG Resources in 2011 intends to extend the field's lifetime by extracting reserves previously considered unrecoverable. The largest operators currently active on the field are Greka Energy with 168 active wells, and ERG, who plans to bring over 300 shut-in wells back into production. The oil field extends from

1936-579: The well became known, came in as a spectacular gusher, producing 12,000 barrels per day (1,900 m /d) and flooding a canyon with oil as crews struggled to contain tens of thousands of barrels of black goo running downhill by hurriedly constructing earthen dams. This well was the largest oil producer on the continent up until this time, with Spindletop in Texas being a close second. It produced over 2 million barrels (320,000 m ) in its long history, not being plugged and abandoned until 1988. The origin of

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