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49-567: The field occupies a range of steep hills, loosely grouped with the Santa Ynez Mountains , which attain heights of over 2100 feet at Rincon Mountain and Red Mountain. Highway 101 occupies the narrow terrace at the base of the hills where they meet the Pacific Ocean. Drainage is by ephemeral streams directly into the ocean. The entire area is highly prone to landslides; in 2005, the adjacent unincorporated town of La Conchita

98-481: A biocide is generally required. Aquifer water from water-bearing formations other than the oil reservoir, but in the same structure, has the advantage of purity and chemical compatibility where available. However this will not be allowed if the aquifer is a source of potable water as, for instance, in Saudi Arabia. River water will require filtration and treatment with a biocide before injection. Filters clean

147-553: A cluster of wells directionally drilled into offshore formations. Greka continues to operate these facilities as of 2010. 34°20′26″N 119°23′22″W  /  34.3406°N 119.3895°W  / 34.3406; -119.3895 Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges , part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It

196-543: A reservoir over a longer period. Waterflooding began accidentally in Pithole, Pennsylvania by 1865. Waterflooding became common in Pennsylvania in the 1880s. Most sources of bulk water can be used for injection. The following sources of water are used for recovery of oil: Produced water is often used as an injection fluid. This reduces the potential of causing formation damage due to incompatible fluids, although

245-466: A series of trays or packing causing dissolved air to be transferred to the gas stream. An alternative or supplementary method, also used as a backup to deoxygenation towers, is to add an oxygen scavenging agent such as sodium bisulfite and ammonium bisulphite. Another option is to use membrane contactors. Membrane contactors bring the water into contact with an inert gas stream, such as nitrogen, to strip out dissolved oxygen. Membrane contactors have

294-457: A single operating unit. Occidental Petroleum acquired Vintage in 2006, retaining their name and making them a wholly owned subsidiary, and still operates the onshore portion of the field under the Vintage banner. In 2002, Greka Energy acquired Rincon Island Limited Partnership, including Rincon Island and a small onshore area of operations alongside U.S. Highway 101. The onshore area contains

343-531: A single, well-defined ridge extending from Gaviota Peak to Matilija Creek . The range is approximately contiguous with the Topatopa Mountains beyond to the east, which terminates abruptly at Sespe Creek . The climate of the range is Mediterranean with most of the precipitation falling between November and March. Most of the range lies in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. At

392-518: Is adjacent to the oil field, on a hilltop which has been graded flat, about a mile east of Pitas Point. Rather than processing oil from the Rincon field, it receives and processes oil from the offshore Dos Cuadras and Carpinteria fields, feeding it into the M-143 pipeline which crosses through the Rincon field on the way to Ventura. A single massive 268,000 barrel tank, the feature of the plant visible at

441-402: Is crucial; especially with river-, and seawater, intake water quality can vary significantly (algae blooming in spring, storms and current stirring up sediments from the seafloor) which may have significant impact on the performance of the water treatment facilities. This may result in poor water quality, bioclogging of the reservoir and reduction of oil production. Oxygen must be removed from

490-404: Is no rain between May and October. Most of the higher coastal slopes of the range average between 30 inches (760 mm) to almost 40 inches (1,000 mm) of precipitation per year (mostly falling between November and March), about twice the total of the coastal plain below. About one year in three snow falls on the higher peaks in the mountains, but it rarely stays for longer than a few days. In

539-405: Is taken from the base of the deaerator by transfer pumps which deliver 1632 m /hr at 3.6 barg to the degasser surge drum. From the surge drum water is transferred to the water injection pumps which deliver water at up to 250,000 BWPD to up to 11 water injection wells. Produced water is also injected into the reservoir at up to 350,000 BWPD. The table shows the number of water injection wells on

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588-717: Is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age created by the movements of the Santa Ynez Fault . A very narrow range, the Santa Ynez Mountains rise quickly on its north side and drops off equally dramatically along the range's south face along the Gaviota Coast . The Santa Ynez Mountains begin as a series of volcanic hills near Point Arguello , and gradually transitions eastward into

637-727: The Painted Cave community where Jane Fonda owned the ridgetop Laurel Springs Ranch into the late 1990s. Other famous residents have included Ronald Reagan , whose Rancho del Cielo is at the top of the range west of Santa Barbara, and Ben Adelson. The Cold Spring Tavern is a popular local gathering place beneath the Cold Spring Bridge . The climate of the mountain range is Mediterranean . Summers are warm and almost entirely rainless, save for occasional monsoonal showers in August and September, though in most years there

686-520: The Santa Ynez Fault , a feature which is considered to be active. The left bend in the San Andreas Fault is proposed to have constrained northward moving lithosphere to cause uplift of the range. Being a young uplift, the slopes are steep and the topography is extremely rugged; the gradient is highest on the northern side above 1,500 feet (460 m), adjacent to the trace of the fault. Dramatic sandstone formations, including outcrops of

735-403: The pressure (also known as voidage replacement), or to drive oil towards the wells, and thereby increase production. Water injection wells may be located on- and offshore, to increase oil recovery from an existing reservoir. Normally only 30% of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted, but water injection increases the recovery (known as the recovery factor) and maintains the production rate of

784-510: The 5,000 psi (345 bar) manifold and wellheads. There were eight water injection wells, each well had a capacity of 15,000 BWPD (99.4 m /hr). An alternative configuration and technology is used on the Buzzard field in the North Sea . Seawater lift pumps deliver 4,000m /hr at 12 barg to the seawater coarse filtration package. After filtration the water is used to cool the cooling medium in

833-744: The Main Area, Oak Grove, and Padre Canyon areas. Each area has several producing horizons, all in the Pico, and ranging in depth from 3,400 feet in the shallow pool in the western Main Area to the "3rd Grubb" horizon at an average depth of 13,000 feet in the Oak Grove Area. Oil is "medium-grade" throughout the field, ranging in API gravity of 26 to 30. The Rincon field was discovered in December 1927, during

882-479: The Padre Canyon area 1936. The deeper zones from both of these areas were not found for another 30 years. Waterflooding of the field began in 1961, and most zones had active waterflood operations by the end of the 1960s. Peak production from the entire field was in 1972, when the various producers reported over 4.6 million barrels for the year. This broke a usual pattern for California oil fields, in which

931-721: The San Miguelito, directly north of the city of Ventura. West of the Rincon field the anticline continues offshore, containing in the Carpinteria offshore field and the Dos Cuadras field , the source of the notorious 1969 oil spill . The surface geology of the Rincon field is distinctive, including some of the most landslide-prone terrain in California; much of the surface consists of Holocene sedimentary landslide deposits, greatly prone to renewed landslides. All of

980-505: The advantage of being lower weight and compact enabling smaller system designs. The high pressure, high flow water injection pumps are placed near to the de-oxygenation tower and boosting pumps. They fill the base of the reservoir with the filtered water to push the oil towards the wells like a piston . The result of the injection is not quick, it needs time. The configuration of the plant elements described above and their operating conditions are outlined in this section. These examples are

1029-464: The city of Santa Barbara, driven by sundowner winds, destroying over 500 homes. A fire in the 1940s destroyed most of the mansion that is now called Knapp's Castle . More recent fires, such as the Tea and Jesusita fires, have also been destructive to properties. Waterflooding In the oil industry, waterflooding or water injection is where water is injected into the oil reservoir, to maintain

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1078-446: The cooling medium plate exchangers. 2322.7 m /hr of seawater now at 6 barg and 20°C is routed to the fine filters and then to the sulphate removal membrane where reverse osmosis is used to remove sulphate ions from the water. Desulphated water flows to the top of the deaerator column, this operates at a partial vacuum (0.3 bara) sustained by the deaerator vacuum unit. The deaerator internals comprise three packed beds. Deaerated water

1127-476: The crest and on the north slope, the rainier regions support extensive oak woodlands, mixed with other broadleafed species such as madrone, sycamore and bay laurel, along with some conifers, primarily Coulter pines . The mountains are principally in Santa Barbara County , with an eastward extension into Ventura County , and are unusual in being an entirely east–west trending mountain range—one of

1176-693: The few in the United States. This is attributed in part to clockwise rotations of crustal blocks 90° or more since the early Miocene or about 17 million years ago. The range is mostly within Los Padres National Forest . The southern slopes of the range drop off into a series of alluvial plains which make up the Gaviota Coast along the Santa Barbara Channel. They tend to be made up of unconsolidated riverine deposits overlying shale bedrock. The northern boundary of

1225-412: The filters water was routed to the water injection pumps. The three water injection pumps each had a capacity of 221 m /hr with a differential head of 2068.5 metres (209 bar). The pumps discharged to the 3,000 psi manifold and wellheads. The single water injection booster pump (221 m /hr, 1,379 m (139 bar) differential head) took its suction from the discharge of the water injection pumps and discharged to

1274-445: The first, coarsest, layer of sand down to the finest. To clean the filter the process is inverted. After the water is filtered it continues to the de-oxygenation tower. Sand filters are bulky, heavy, have some spill over of sand particles and require chemicals to enhance water quality. A more sophisticated approach is to use automatic self-cleaning backflushable screen filters (suction scanning). The importance of proper water treatment

1323-565: The former Amoco North West Hutton installation and the Buzzard installation in the North Sea. The water injection system had two design cases The two duty seawater lift pumps discharged water at 1,590 m /hr and 30.5 psi (2.1 barg) to the seawater filters. These comprised six dual media (garnet and anthracite) filter beds. Normal flow was downwards. Backwash flow of water and air was upwards with flush water discharged overboard. Backwashing

1372-504: The greatest distance, stores oil from the Rincon field prior to shipping it through the pipeline. The offshore part of the field is mostly in shallow water, and is accessed from Rincon Island, an artificial island about two-thirds of a mile south of Punta Gorda, connected to the mainland by a 3,000-foot (910 m) causeway. This plank causeway is too narrow for regular vehicular traffic, but contains pipelines to carry oilfield liquids – oil and produced water – as well as natural gas back to

1421-433: The late spring and early summer the mountains and areas below to the south are subject to occasional intense sundowner winds , a type of foehn wind in which the air is heated adiabatically and dried as it moves downslope. In dry years these winds pose an extreme fire hazard. Occasionally extremely destructive fires originate in the Santa Ynez Mountains. In June 1990, a fire which began near Painted Cave burned south into

1470-459: The latter of which wanders in and out of the range within territories in excess of 15 square miles. Early inhabitants included the Chumash people who left behind many examples of rock art including those at Painted Cave SHP . Large portions of the mountain range are now in the Los Padres National Forest , although there are private inholdings , including some substantial communities, such as

1519-786: The mountain range diverges into two low ridges, separated by Jalama Creek, which then vanish into the Pacific Ocean. The mountains parallel the Channel Islands to the south, another east–west trending range, a geologic extension of the Santa Monica Mountains ; the two ranges are about thirty miles apart. Principal summits in the Santa Ynez range include Divide Peak, 4,707 ft (1,435 m), La Cumbre Peak , 3,985 ft (1,215 m) (above Santa Barbara), and Santa Ynez Peak, 4,298 ft (1,310 m). There are several important passes, including Gaviota Pass in

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1568-714: The mountains are young and mostly of sedimentary origin. The most common rock types in the range are sandstones and shales, with some limestone in the western portion of the range. Volcanic rocks can be found at the very western extremity of the range, near Point Arguello (Tranquillion Mountain Volcanics), while some schists of the Franciscan Assemblage are exposed in a number of locations. The Santa Ynez Mountains were uplifted in Pliocene and Pleistocene time, beginning about five million years ago, along

1617-571: The mountains extend from an eastern terminus at the canyon of the Ventura River and Matilija Creek, north of Ojai , west across the Santa Barbara County line, to immediately north of the city of Santa Barbara , and then west, paralleling the coast, to the city of Lompoc and Vandenberg Space Force Base . The Santa Ynez River flows just north of the mountains, paralleling them for most of their length. Before reaching Lompoc

1666-452: The next several years. None were spectacular gushers, but they were sufficiently profitable to encourage further drilling. The "Miley" producing horizon was discovered in 1928, and other deeper producing zones within the main area appeared in 1929, with the deepest at 7,800 feet in June 1929. Chanslor-Canfield Midway Oil Co. discovered the Oak Grove Area in 1931, and Continental Oil Co. found

1715-401: The peak production was typically within the first few years after discovery, with a secondary peak occurring after the development of enhanced-recovery technologies in the 1960s. In 1993, Vintage Petroleum acquired both the Rincon and adjacent San Miguelito oil fields from Mobil , Conoco , and Santa Fe Energy . For operational efficiency, Vintage combined the two adjacent oil fields into

1764-499: The petroleum-bearing horizons in the Rincon field are in the Pico Formation , a thick sedimentary unit deposited in a shallow marine environment during the Pliocene , 5.3 to 1.6 million years ago. This formation contains sandstones , siltstones , and conglomerates , sufficiently porous under the anticline to hold abundant quantities of oil. The field has been divided into three general sections, listed from west to east as

1813-459: The production volumes (oil and gas, in addition to water), additional "make-up" water must be provided. Mixing waters from different sources exacerbates the risk of scaling. Seawater may be the most convenient source for offshore production facilities, and it may be pumped inshore for use in land fields. Where possible, the water intake is placed at sufficient depth to reduce the concentration of algae; however, filtering, deoxygenation, treatment with

1862-614: The range is marked by the Santa Ynez Fault, the massive thrust fault that uplifted the mountains since approximately 5 million years ago starting in the Pliocene . Notable features along the fault which mark the boundary of the range include Jalama Creek and the Santa Ynez River to the west and Matilija Creek in the far east. To the north of the range are the San Rafael Mountains . Laterally,

1911-431: The resistant Coldwater and Matilija formations, are visible at many locations in the range. The predominant ground cover is chaparral , with coastal sage scrub , oak woodland and grasslands at lower elevations. Isolated stands of conifers (mostly Coulter pines ) and other evergreen trees such as bay laurel , tanbark oak and madrone grow on the higher parts of the northern slopes, which are cooler and shadier than

1960-451: The risk of scaling or corrosion in injection flowlines or tubing remains. Also, the produced water, being contaminated with hydrocarbons and solids, must be disposed of in some manner, and disposal to sea or river will require clean-up treatment of the water stream first. However, the processing required to render produced water fit for reinjection may be equally costly. As the volumes of water being produced are never sufficient to replace all

2009-610: The shore, where they are processed at the La Conchita Oil and Gas Processing Facility. The Rincon field is at the western end of the Ventura Anticline, a long narrow structure rather like the gabled roof on a long house, beneath which petroleum has collected in abundance. Two other similar onshore fields follow the anticline: the San Miguelito field to the southeast and the huge Ventura Oil Field beyond

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2058-544: The southern slopes exposed to the sun. At lower elevations on the southern side of the range, a virtually frost-free zone, avocados are grown in considerable quantity. The Santa Ynez Mountains are home to many species typical of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, such as the Western fence lizard , Nuttall's woodpecker , Steller's jay , striped skunk , raccoon , mule deer , bobcat , and coyote . Large predator species include mountain lion and black bear ,

2107-426: The tail end of the California oil boom, the period when most of the state's largest fields were discovered and the transportation and refining infrastructure developed. Pan American Petroleum Company drilled the discovery well, Hobson Fee No. 3, to a depth of 2,557 feet into the "Shallow" and "Top" zones of the Pliocene -age Pico Formation , encountering a 1,500 psi reservoir pressure. Other discoveries followed in

2156-450: The water and remove impurities, such as sediments, shells , sand, algae and other biological matter. Typical filtration is to 2 micrometres , but depends on reservoir requirements. After filtration the remaining matter in the filtrate is fine enough to avoid blockage of the pores of the reservoir. Sand filters are a commonly used filtration technology. The sand filter has beds with various sizes of sand granules. The water flows through

2205-411: The water because it promotes corrosion and growth of certain bacteria . Bacterial growth in the reservoir can produce hydrogen sulfide , a source of production problems, and may block the pores in the rock. A deoxygenation tower brings the injection water into contact with a gas stream (gas is readily available in the oilfield). The filtered water flows down the de-oxygenation tower, splashing onto

2254-524: The western portion of the range, through which runs U.S. Highway 101 via the Gaviota Tunnel ; and San Marcos Pass near Santa Barbara, through which runs California State Route 154 capped by the magnificent Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge near the summit. The highest point, an unnamed and unmarked crest colloquially called Peak 4864 , is located right above the eastern terminus of the range, near Lake Casitas and Matilija Canyon. Geologically

2303-465: Was drawn from the base of the vessel by the deaerator pumps and was transferred to the cold water header operating at 90 psig (6.2 barg). Process and utility coolers were supplied from the cold water header, warm water from the coolers was routed to the degassing drum where any air or gas was removed. From the degassing drum water passed to the injection filters. Water was filtered in the water injection filters, one duty and one on standby/backwash. From

2352-443: Was initiated by a high differential pressure across a filter bed. Filtered water was routed to the top of the deaerator. This was a vertical vessel 12.6 m high and 4.0 m diameter, the internals comprise a packed bed. Air was stripped from the water by an upflow of fuel gas, gas/air was routed from the top of the vessel to the flare. Oxygen scavenger was injected into the deaerator vessel to remove any residual oxygen. Deaerated water

2401-460: Was the site of a landslide that killed 10 people. During exceptionally rainy winters, Highway 101 can be cut by landslides. Native vegetation consists of coastal sage scrub and chaparral. Climate in the area is Mediterranean , with cool rainy winters and mild summers, the heat being moderated by morning fog and low clouds. About 15 inches of rain fall each year, with slightly more at higher elevations The Rincon Oil and Gas Processing Facility

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