McKittrick Oil Field
Encyclopedia
The McKittrick Oil Field is a large oil and gas field
in western Kern County, California
. The town of McKittrick
overlies the northeastern portion of the oil field
. Recognized as an oil field in the 19th century, but known by Native Americans for thousands of years due to its tar seep
s, the field is ranked 19th in California by total ultimate oil recovery, and has had a cumulative production of over 303 Moilbbl of oil. The principal operators of the field as of 2008 were Chevron Corp. and Aera Energy LLC
, but many independent oil exploration and production companies were also active on the field. The California Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) estimates approximately 20 million recoverable barrels of oil remain in the ground.
at the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley
. California State Route 33
and 58
intersect at the town of McKittrick, and both routes cross over portions of the field. The climate is hot and arid to semi-arid, with an average annual rainfall of 5 to 6 inches (152.4 mm), and summertime highs commonly exceeding 100 °F (37.8 °C). Some subfreezing temperatures occur in the winter, with the mean freeze-free period being from 250 to 275 days. Drainage is to the northeast, away from the Temblors towards the Central Valley, and streams are dry for most of the year. The predominant vegetation is the vicinity of the field is low scrub, in particular Atriplex lentiformis or saltbush. Elevations on the field range from approximately 1,000 to 1500 feet (457.2 m).
Many other productive oil fields are nearby. Adjacent to the north is the enormous, and densely developed Cymric Oil Field
, and beyond that the South Belridge Oil Field
; to the east is the Elk Hills Oil Field
, famous in the Teapot Dome Scandal
of the Warren G. Harding
administration; adjacent to the southwest is the Belgian Anticline Oil Field, along Route 58; and to the southeast is the huge Midway-Sunset Oil Field
, the third largest oil field in the United States.
The total productive area of the field is 3970 acres (16.1 km²), about six square miles. The field is about five miles (8 km) long on the southeast to northwest axis, and about two and a half miles across.
– more than six miles (10 km) long, approximately a mile wide, and up to two thousand feet thick – which slipped off of the slopes of the adjacent Temblor Range during the Pleistocene
and moved eastward onto the plain, almost entirely covering the field, and forming an impermeable cap over the oil-bearing rock. This mass of stone, consisting of over three cubic miles of rock, moved two to three miles (5 km) from its source region, and down about two thousand feet in elevation. While it probably did not move into its present position all at once, the incident must have been dramatic.
Another unusual feature of the McKittrick field is its large tar seeps, points on the surface where petroleum has migrated upwards, forming pools. In California, the McKittrick Tar Pits
are second only to the La Brea Tar Pits
in fame, and have yielded dozens of skeletons of extinct megafauna with ages from about 10,000 to 40,000 years. The tar seeps outcrop in an area about four miles (6 km) long, adjacent to the McKittrick Thrust Fault, which defines the southwestern boundary of the oil field. They are found in areas where the overlying Monterey formation, which tumbled down the Temblors during the Pleistocene, eroded away, exposing the oil-bearing strata. When oil reaches the surface, it is exposed to biodegradation
, evaporation, and oxidation, forming asphaltum. This series of tar seeps is the most extensive in the state, although none of the individual seeps are as large as the La Brea Tar Pits.
Oil in the McKittrick field is in 13 separate pools: 8 in the Northeast Area, and 5 in the Main Area. The most productive pools have been the Tulare-San Joaquin, Olig, and Basal Reef Ridge in the Main Area, and the Tulare-San Joaquin, Phacoides, and Oceanic in the Northeast Area. Oil API gravity
varies between the different pools, with some bearing heavy crude of API gravity 12, and others with lighter oil, such as the Phacoides which reported an average value of 33. Enhanced recovery techniques such as fire flooding and steam flooding
have been used since the 1960s to improve recovery of the heavier oils, while water flooding was used in the 1970s and early 1980s in the Phacoides to improve recovery (with limited success, as that pool peaked in 1966).
Major paleontological
study of the remains in the tar pit
s began in 1921 with the first large road cut through the area. Skeletons of many now-extinct mammals have been recovered, including camel
s, mammoth
s, dire wolves
, saber toothed cats, deer
, and bison
. Bird species found include duck
s, stork
s, heron
s, and various shorebirds – mainly species adapted to forage in shallow water.
. They used the asphaltum as a sealant, for waterproofing, for decoration, for adhesive, and for trade.
In the 1860s, San Joaquin Valley settlers made the first attempts to mine the asphaltum, digging pits, trenches, and tunnels. They refined the viscous substance onsite, making it into lubricating oil and kerosene. These early attempts were only marginally profitable, but this changed in 1896 when the first real oil well
was drilled. The Klondike Oil Company's Shamrock gusher, which spewed 1300 barrels (206.7 m³) of oil per day, was not only the first gusher in the region, but the first significant oil well in the San Joaquin Valley, which went on to become one of the richest petroleum regions in the nation.
Many of the deeper pools were found in the 1960s, and some of them proved not only to have higher quality oil, but were more productive. In the Northeast Area, the Phacoides, Oceanic, and Point of Rocks pools vary from 7,900 to 9100 feet (2,773.7 m) below ground surface; the temperature of the oil varies from 230 to 260 °F (126.7 °C) at that depth, and the initial reservoir pressures were also high (up to 4,100 psi) – pressures that would have caused major blowouts and gushers during the early part of the century, but can be better managed with modern technology.
As of 2008, there were 1,135 producing oil wells on the field. Producers besides Chevron Corp., the largest, included Aera Energy LLC
, Berry Petroleum, Vintage, E & B Natural Resources Management Corp., Plains Exploration & Production
, Longbow, LLC, and others.
Oil and gas field
An oil and gas field is a field, or vast reservoir, that contains both oil and natural gas.-See also:* Oil field* Natural gas field* Oil reservoir* List of oil fields* List of natural gas fields...
in western Kern County, California
Kern County, California
Spreading across the southern end of the California Central Valley, Kern County is the fifth-largest county by population in California. Its economy is heavily linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction, and there is a strong aviation and space presence. Politically, it has generally...
. The town of McKittrick
McKittrick, California
McKittrick is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. McKittrick is located northwest of Taft, at an elevation of 1056 feet . The population was 115 at the 2010 census, down from 160 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
overlies the northeastern portion of the oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
. Recognized as an oil field in the 19th century, but known by Native Americans for thousands of years due to its tar seep
Seep
A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation structures...
s, the field is ranked 19th in California by total ultimate oil recovery, and has had a cumulative production of over 303 Moilbbl of oil. The principal operators of the field as of 2008 were Chevron Corp. and Aera Energy LLC
Aera Energy LLC
Aera Energy LLC is a natural gas, oil exploration and production company jointly owned by Shell and ExxonMobil headquartered in Bakersfield, California...
, but many independent oil exploration and production companies were also active on the field. The California Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) estimates approximately 20 million recoverable barrels of oil remain in the ground.
Setting
The oil field is in the McKittrick Valley and the adjacent foothills of the Temblor RangeTemblor Range
The Temblor Range is a mountain range within the California Coast Ranges, at the southwestern extremity of the San Joaquin Valley in California in the United States. It runs in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the borders of Kern County and San Luis Obispo County. The name of the range is...
at the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
. California State Route 33
California State Route 33
State Route 33 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California. SR 33 replaced part of U.S. Route 399 in 1964 during the "great renumbering" of routes. In the unincorporated sections of Kern County it is known as the West Side Highway...
and 58
California State Route 58
State Route 58 is an east-west highway across the California Coast Ranges, the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains, which border the southern Sierra Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. It runs between its western terminus near Santa Margarita and its eastern terminus at Barstow...
intersect at the town of McKittrick, and both routes cross over portions of the field. The climate is hot and arid to semi-arid, with an average annual rainfall of 5 to 6 inches (152.4 mm), and summertime highs commonly exceeding 100 °F (37.8 °C). Some subfreezing temperatures occur in the winter, with the mean freeze-free period being from 250 to 275 days. Drainage is to the northeast, away from the Temblors towards the Central Valley, and streams are dry for most of the year. The predominant vegetation is the vicinity of the field is low scrub, in particular Atriplex lentiformis or saltbush. Elevations on the field range from approximately 1,000 to 1500 feet (457.2 m).
Many other productive oil fields are nearby. Adjacent to the north is the enormous, and densely developed Cymric Oil Field
Cymric Oil Field
The Cymric Oil Field is a large oil field in Kern County, California in the United States. While only the 14th-largest oil field in California in total size, in terms of total remaining reserves it ranks fifth, with the equivalent of over still in the ground...
, and beyond that the South Belridge Oil Field
South Belridge Oil Field
The South Belridge Oil Field is a large oil field in northwestern Kern County, San Joaquin Valley, California, about forty miles west of Bakersfield...
; to the east is the Elk Hills Oil Field
Elk Hills Oil Field
The Elk Hills Oil Field is a large oil field in northwestern Kern County, in the Elk Hills of the San Joaquin Valley, California in the United States, about twenty miles west of Bakersfield...
, famous in the Teapot Dome Scandal
Teapot Dome scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States in 1922–23, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome and two other locations to private oil companies at low...
of the Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
administration; adjacent to the southwest is the Belgian Anticline Oil Field, along Route 58; and to the southeast is the huge Midway-Sunset Oil Field
Midway-Sunset Oil Field
The Midway-Sunset Oil Field is a large oil field in Kern County, San Joaquin Valley, California in the United States. Discovered in 1894, and having a cumulative production of close to of oil at the end of 2006, it is the largest oil field in California and the third largest in the United States....
, the third largest oil field in the United States.
The total productive area of the field is 3970 acres (16.1 km²), about six square miles. The field is about five miles (8 km) long on the southeast to northwest axis, and about two and a half miles across.
Geology and paleontology
The predominant geologic feature, and the one that makes the McKittrick field distinctive, is the presence of a huge block of Monterey shaleMonterey Formation
The Monterey Formation is an extensive Miocene oil-rich geological sedimentary formation in California, with massive outcroppings of the formation in areas of the California Coast Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and on some of California's off-shore islands...
– more than six miles (10 km) long, approximately a mile wide, and up to two thousand feet thick – which slipped off of the slopes of the adjacent Temblor Range during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
and moved eastward onto the plain, almost entirely covering the field, and forming an impermeable cap over the oil-bearing rock. This mass of stone, consisting of over three cubic miles of rock, moved two to three miles (5 km) from its source region, and down about two thousand feet in elevation. While it probably did not move into its present position all at once, the incident must have been dramatic.
Another unusual feature of the McKittrick field is its large tar seeps, points on the surface where petroleum has migrated upwards, forming pools. In California, the McKittrick Tar Pits
McKittrick Tar Pits
The McKittrick Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the western part of Kern County in southern California. The pits are the most extensive asphalt lakes in the state...
are second only to the La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits
The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water...
in fame, and have yielded dozens of skeletons of extinct megafauna with ages from about 10,000 to 40,000 years. The tar seeps outcrop in an area about four miles (6 km) long, adjacent to the McKittrick Thrust Fault, which defines the southwestern boundary of the oil field. They are found in areas where the overlying Monterey formation, which tumbled down the Temblors during the Pleistocene, eroded away, exposing the oil-bearing strata. When oil reaches the surface, it is exposed to biodegradation
Biodegradation
Biodegradation or biotic degradation or biotic decomposition is the chemical dissolution of materials by bacteria or other biological means...
, evaporation, and oxidation, forming asphaltum. This series of tar seeps is the most extensive in the state, although none of the individual seeps are as large as the La Brea Tar Pits.
Oil in the McKittrick field is in 13 separate pools: 8 in the Northeast Area, and 5 in the Main Area. The most productive pools have been the Tulare-San Joaquin, Olig, and Basal Reef Ridge in the Main Area, and the Tulare-San Joaquin, Phacoides, and Oceanic in the Northeast Area. Oil API gravity
API gravity
The American Petroleum Institute gravity, or API gravity, is a measure of how heavy or light a petroleum liquid is compared to water. If its API gravity is greater than 10, it is lighter and floats on water; if less than 10, it is heavier and sinks...
varies between the different pools, with some bearing heavy crude of API gravity 12, and others with lighter oil, such as the Phacoides which reported an average value of 33. Enhanced recovery techniques such as fire flooding and steam flooding
Steam injection (oil industry)
Steam injection is an increasingly common method of extracting heavy oil. It is considered an enhanced oil recovery method and is the main type of thermal stimulation of oil reservoirs. There are several different forms of the technology, with the two main ones being Cyclic Steam Stimulation and...
have been used since the 1960s to improve recovery of the heavier oils, while water flooding was used in the 1970s and early 1980s in the Phacoides to improve recovery (with limited success, as that pool peaked in 1966).
Major paleontological
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
study of the remains in the tar pit
Tar pit
A tar pit, or more accurately known as an asphalt pit or asphalt lake, is a geological occurrence where subterranean bitumen leaks to the surface, creating a large area of natural asphalt.-Known tar pits:...
s began in 1921 with the first large road cut through the area. Skeletons of many now-extinct mammals have been recovered, including camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
s, mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
s, dire wolves
Dire Wolf
The Dire Wolf, Canis dirus, is an extinct carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis, and was most common in North America and South America from the Irvingtonian stage to the Rancholabrean stage of the Pleistocene epoch living 1.80 Ma – 10,000 years ago, existing for approximately .- Relationships...
, saber toothed cats, deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
, and bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
. Bird species found include duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s, stork
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the biological order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families....
s, heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s, and various shorebirds – mainly species adapted to forage in shallow water.
History, production, and operations
The McKittrick Tar Pits have been known to the local Native American population, the Yokuts, from prehistoric timesPrehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
. They used the asphaltum as a sealant, for waterproofing, for decoration, for adhesive, and for trade.
In the 1860s, San Joaquin Valley settlers made the first attempts to mine the asphaltum, digging pits, trenches, and tunnels. They refined the viscous substance onsite, making it into lubricating oil and kerosene. These early attempts were only marginally profitable, but this changed in 1896 when the first real oil well
Oil well
An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...
was drilled. The Klondike Oil Company's Shamrock gusher, which spewed 1300 barrels (206.7 m³) of oil per day, was not only the first gusher in the region, but the first significant oil well in the San Joaquin Valley, which went on to become one of the richest petroleum regions in the nation.
Many of the deeper pools were found in the 1960s, and some of them proved not only to have higher quality oil, but were more productive. In the Northeast Area, the Phacoides, Oceanic, and Point of Rocks pools vary from 7,900 to 9100 feet (2,773.7 m) below ground surface; the temperature of the oil varies from 230 to 260 °F (126.7 °C) at that depth, and the initial reservoir pressures were also high (up to 4,100 psi) – pressures that would have caused major blowouts and gushers during the early part of the century, but can be better managed with modern technology.
As of 2008, there were 1,135 producing oil wells on the field. Producers besides Chevron Corp., the largest, included Aera Energy LLC
Aera Energy LLC
Aera Energy LLC is a natural gas, oil exploration and production company jointly owned by Shell and ExxonMobil headquartered in Bakersfield, California...
, Berry Petroleum, Vintage, E & B Natural Resources Management Corp., Plains Exploration & Production
Plains Exploration & Production
Plains Exploration & Production, commonly known by its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol , is a U.S. petroleum company based in Houston, Texas. A spin-off from Plains Resources, Inc., the company was founded in 2002. Its operations, as of 2009, were all in North America, including California,...
, Longbow, LLC, and others.