San Ardo Oil Field - Production and Operations

Production and Operations

The Texas Company (later Texaco, and currently Chevron Corp.) discovered the field in November 1947 by drilling their "Lombardi 1" well to a depth of 2,158 feet (658 m). Initial production from the discovery well was 155 barrels per day (24.6 m3/d).

Since the oil is heavy crude, with API gravity of only 9-11 in the Lombardi Sands and 13 in the Aurignac, getting it to flow to production wells can be difficult. Various enhanced recovery technologies developed during the 1960s and 1970s have made the process easier. Steam flooding is the technology of choice in the San Ardo Field; injection wells force steam into the ground to heat the crude and decrease its viscosity, and if strategically placed, can push the oil to nearby production wells. Steam flooding has been used in both the Aurignac and Lombardi sands since 1966-1967; water flooding is also being used in the Aurignac. The peak production from the field was in 1967, the first year in which both productive units were subject to steam flooding. Fireflooding, a technology in which the oil is ignited by an electric coil in the presence of oxygen, with the combustion front moving towards a production well, and sometimes followed by water flooding as a further assist, has also been used in several of the San Ardo pools.

Currently, the principal operators on the field are Chevron Corp. and Aera Energy LLC. Two smaller operators are active on the field as of 2010: NY Oil Company Inc., and Salinas Energy Corp. As of the end of 2008 Chevron and Aera Energy were the two largest producers of oil in California.